There are significant limitations and deficiencies with this approach which make it inadvisable. These include:
- Backups capture data at specific points in time, so cannot ensure a 100-percent complete and accurate record of all data.
- Retention policies within backups do not provide the granular level of control over data retention needed to meet more complex compliance requirements.
- Backups do not provide full text and multilevel search, tagging, and export capabilities, which maybe critical for compliance with e-discovery requests.
- The point-in-time revisions stored by backup solutions contain multiple versions of data items, which must be reconciled to produce a single set of accurate and verifiable results for e-discovery.
- Backup solutions typically do not provide direct access for end users to search and retrieve historical data, or allow them to restore individual items without involving IT.