3.6 Digital Archives Identification and Administration
3.6.1 Digital archiving practices
3.6.1.6 Preserving digital archives in the cloud
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The problems identified above are similarly faced by archival repositories in public sector organizations and universities while managing digital archival materials.
Findings of the study by Kamatula and Kemoni (2018:81) indicated that government offices lacked long-term preservation strategies for digital records and archives.
Similarly, Wamukoya and Lowry (2013:154) reported archival repositories in the East Africa region lacked formal digital archival management and preservation strategies.
Today, many African countries are still struggling with the same problems arising from the integration of digital technologies in records and archives management, confirming the view that most of those recommendations are yet to be implemented.
In South Africa for example, Katuu (2018:38) notes that digital preservation of records has not been a priority topic for professional discussion in the country, thereby contributing to the challenges faced in the long-term preservation of digital records. In Kenya, Ambira, Kemoni and Ngulube (2019:306) identified the inept management of digital records as a gap that should be addressed in all public ministries and organizations. Therefore, the present study zeroed in on the preservation challenges enshrouding digital archives in public universities in Kenya and presented best practice strategies to enhance their management. Some preservation strategies for digital archives identified in the literature include technology preservation, backup strategy, migration, refreshing, emulation, encapsulation, cloud computing and Linked Open Data (LOD) (Anyaoku, Echedom and Baro 2019:44-5; Adu and Ngulube 2016:752-4).
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ii. The platform utilizes existing technologies that can be defined through a layered model;
iii. The platform and services can be accessed on a pay-per-use basis over the internet, and;
iv. The quality, number and availability of services are provided in accordance to cloud service provider agreements.
According to Shave (2015:20), there are four cloud models as depicted in Table 3.2.
Table 3.2: Cloud deployment models
Community cloud This is a cloud infrastructure which supports a specific community or communities and is shared by a number of organisations.
Private cloud This type of cloud is also referred to as a corporate or internal cloud. It is cloud infrastructure owned and operated by one single organization and is either managed by the organization or by a third-party, and is hosted externally or internally.
Public cloud This type of cloud consists of a service
provider offering resources, such as infrastructure and applications (operating system, server, storage, network
connectivity, etc.) to individuals, an organization, a group of organizations, or the general public over the Internet.
Hybrid cloud This cloud combines public and private
clouds as well as on-premise solutions that are connected together to deliver the benefits of multiple deployment models.
There has been a marked increase in the use of cloud services in the African continent which is attributed to increased internet penetration in the region (Mosweu, Luthuli and Mosweu 2019:5). In the past decade, many business entities have become more reliant upon cloud storage technology as a means of providing outsourced software, storage and infrastructure (Duranti and Rogers 2012:523). The study by Gantz and Reinsel (2012:2) projected that by the year 2020 nearly 40 percent of digitally
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generated content will be stored in the cloud. Hardly ten years down the line and with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the creation, distribution and access of digital content in the cloud is undeniably today’s universal “new normal”. Many of these clouds are operated on the public internet by large companies such as Google and Amazon which have the advantage of according savings on costs through shared storage space by creating agencies and archival institutions or repositories, thereby eliminating unnecessary duplication (Guo, Fang, Pan and Li 2016:173; Askhoj, Sugimoto and Nagamori 2011:176).
Despite having the benefits of seemingly infinite storage, lower storage charges, real- time service provision, remote global access and sharability, as well as reduced pressure on an organisation’s IT unit, the technical fundamentals of cloud computing cast doubts on the ability of cloud service providers to maintain the authenticity of records transferred to them for custody, and provide proof of the same (Duranti and Jansen 2013:161; Stuart and Bromage 2010:218-9). Mosweu, Luthuli and Mosweu (2019: 11-12) identify barriers to the successful implementation of cloud computing in Africa as including the digital divide, unpredictable nature of cloud services, data (in)security, non-compliance with legal requirements, interoperability and lack of open standards. The risks associated with custodial transfer (breaking the custodial chain of ownership) is the main reason behind the sluggish buy-in for cloud computing by a cross-section of recordkeeping professionals, especially archivists who hold the notion that digital records should be stored and maintained by their creators (Duranti and Rogers 2012:530; National Archives of Australia [NAA]
2004:17-18). In agreement with this sentiment, Duranti and Jansen (2013:51) caution that records and archives professionals should address specific issues in cloud computing which include but are not limited to data security and trust, custodial transfer, loss of jurisdictional control and legal compliance. Towards this end, Stuart and Bromage (2010:223) advise that organizations should carry out “due diligence”
prior to making the decision of entrusting their archival records to third parties.
Additionally, the post-custodial debate sparked off a new thinking whereby archivists are called upon to be “agenda setters” by playing a supervisory role over cloud providers, carrying out inspections, issuing suggestions and guidance in form of policies for the provision of cloud services to archival repositories and enforcing rules and regulations (Guo et al 2016:173; Duranti and Jansen 2013:164).
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Despite the increases popularity of cloud computing globally, many countries and professions continue to view the technology suspiciously. Findings of a study by Pan (2019) in two Chinese enterprises indicated that there was little impact of cloud-based services on the recordkeeping function in the organizations. Citing ResearchICTafrica.net (2017), Mosweu, Luthuli and Mosweu (2019:5) reported that although a number of organizations in Kenya have adopted cloud computing, government support for this technology has been minimal. Consequently, this study took cognizance of cloud computing and other preservation technologies which archival repositories must choose from to guarantee the long-term storage and survival of their archival resources.