Copy Data

What Does Copy Data Mean?

The term “copy data” refers to the idea that enterprises and other parties are generating duplicate sets of data, including files, documents and folders, in different kinds of IT structures. Related to the issue of redundant and isolated data, the problem of copy data underscores the need for businesses to have efficient IT systems.

Advertisements

Techopedia Explains Copy Data

IT experts liken copy data to the idea of closed silos. Silos are situations where information is walled off or isolated from the main IT architecture. In systems such as disaster recovery processes, testing processes, backup and central data warehouses, information can get duplicated and stored separately, which results in confusion about how to handle multiple versions of the same information.

Dealing with copy data requires looking at the IT architecture from a bird’s-eye perspective. It means understanding whether information is getting duplicated for business purposes somewhere in the system and whether multiple replicated files are getting updated together. Copy data can be an efficiency issue, but it can also be a consistency issue within a greater IT system.

Advertisements

Related Terms

Latest Data Management Terms

Related Reading

Margaret Rouse

Margaret Rouse is an award-winning technical writer and teacher known for her ability to explain complex technical subjects to a non-technical, business audience. Over the past twenty years her explanations have appeared on TechTarget websites and she's been cited as an authority in articles by the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine and Discovery Magazine.Margaret's idea of a fun day is helping IT and business professionals learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages. If you have a suggestion for a new definition or how to improve a technical explanation, please email Margaret or contact her…