I’ve spent a lot of time talking to IT clients and vendors about archiving and backup, and these discussions made me realize there is a real problem with the terminology used today.
For IT clients, the terms have different meanings depending on the responsibilities of the person talking. Preconceptions (or misconceptions) give color to what motivates customers in managing information. The application owner or business owner sees backup as something for which IT is responsible for. At the same time, IT sees archiving as a possible impediment to success on because it could make it more difficult to access needed information.