Decommissioning December – it’s here! December 2, 2015
December is often described as the ‘silly season’, filled with end of year parties, hot days and getting Christmas carols stuck in your head.
Here at State Records we’ve decided to wrest control of this month from fun loving frivolity and focus on the wonderful topic of decommissioning!
All December long our blog posts will be focussed on decommissioning, in particular the records and information management considerations associated with decommissioning systems. To ensure that you don’t miss out on any of these posts, you might like to subscribe to our RSS feed or email updates, or follow us on Twitter or Facebook.
What is decommissioning?
Decommissioning is a process by which a business application (or system) is removed from use in an organisation. Decommissioning involves:
- analysing the data in the system
- identifying the data, metadata and system documentation that must be brought forward and retained
- establishing an accountable process for deleting any residual data in the system.
In what circumstances do organisations decommission systems?
The latest update to the NSW Government ICT Strategy, Digital+ 2016, notes that the ICT environment in NSW Government is a mix of old and new technologies and fragmented and inconsistent systems. One of the action items of the Strategy is to develop a whole of government approach to transition away from legacy systems.
Transitioning away from legacy systems often involves decommissioning.
What’s next?
In our next post we will be talking about the advice and guidance that State Records provides NSW Government agencies on the subject of decommissioning. Stay tuned!
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