Super-sizing storage is not the same as data cleanup

I deleted 80 people yesterday.

Gone from my life -- or at least my contact list -- are the aggressive copier salesman I never plan to speak with again, the ex-customer with the anger management issue, and 23 people from Internet companies who didn't survive the dot-bomb era of hype, to name a few.

It felt great to delete them in the same way it feels great to clean out a closet.

I felt more organized when I was done. My list was lean and clean.

Here's the irony.

I purged them because I was forced to. I was attempting to synchronize my contacts in Microsoft Outlook with my new cell phone, but I had too many contacts for the phone's capacity.

Technology usually has the opposite effect: it enables our sloppy file management by letting us super-size our way out of the problem.

All those files filling up the server? Super-size the hard drives.

Too much data to hold on your tape drive? Super-size the backup.

Is your computer too slow to slog through thousands of messages in your inbox? Super-size the computer.

Super-sizing makes everything better. Or does it?

If Elvis were around today, I'm sure he'd tell us that super-sizing your leather pants isn't the best way to deal with slothful

behavior.

Putting your data on a diet is a good thing for every user and every business to do at least once a year.

If you don't, your files can quickly grow out of control.

Just last week a client filed up the tape drive on a relatively new server. Data overwhelmed a 36-gigabyte tape, and the tape drive couldn't handle a larger tape.

"Let's just get a bigger tape drive," was the client's response. It would have easily cost $1,800 to super-size our way out of the problem.

A few months earlier (before I was hired), they solved a similar problem by super-sizing the hard drive for the server.

Rather than throw money at the problem, I suggested looking at their files first. When we spent a few minutes searching the server, we found folders full of junk. Old backup files, duplicates of existing folders, pictures from a company picnic five years ago, and data from old programs they hadn't used in years.

In less than one hour, we purged more than 10 gigabytes of computer files from the server. Some of it was junk we just deleted.

Much of it we copied to a portable disk in case they needed to reference it later. It might have some value, but it certainly doesn't need to clog up the server and fill up the backup tape every night.

Excess files cost money.

There is, of course, the cost of storing them and backing them up, as well as the wear and tear on backup and storage drives.

But the real cost is the hidden one: time.

If your files aren't lean and clean, you and your employees are likely to waste inordinate amounts sifting through junk-filled files, folders, messages, and lists to find the good stuff.

It's like the tool shed. Every few months, you have to clean it out and reorganize so you can see the tools you have and find the tools you need.

To that end, here are some suggestions to keep your files lean and clean.

• Once or twice a year, set aside a few hours in the office for everyone to clean up their files. Make it fun. Award prizes. Have a nice lunch afterwards, but make it happen.
• Learn to archive. Finished projects, old proposals, old e-mail, old files, old contacts. There are lots of data you may want to keep, just not on your computer or the server. You can load them on portable hard drives or burn them on CDs or DVDs, in case you need to reference them later. (I always recommend copying archived data to two places in case of loss or disk failure.)
• Limit space. Most servers have the ability to limit the size of user folders or e-mail boxes. As in my case, people will take the time to purge data, if given no other choice.
• Have your network administrator cull the server once or twice a year for errant files. I often find old backups, old software, duplicates of large files and folders, music, personal pictures, and other stuff that doesn't belong on the server.

Super-sizing is an easy solution to the growing data problem, just not necessarily the best one.