We’ve come a long way from using floppy disks and CDs to store our business data and files. These days, many people and businesses have moved to the cloud for data storage and file management, and others use servers housed in office closets and storage rooms. Still others—especially in the accounting industry—continue to operate from paper files in filing cabinets!

(Lest we digress, paper vs. digital is the subject for another blog post.)

We’re focusing today on digital storage and what happens to your data when storage gets out of control.

But let’s back up a minute and look at data usage in general. Did you know that every minute, 204 million emails are sent? In those same 60 seconds, 72 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube, 48,000 apps are downloaded from the App Store, and Tinder users swipe left or right some 416k times.

That’s a lot of data!

Businesses are just as guilty as individual users when it comes to data usage—think about your accounting firm and the number of emails each employee sends every day. On top of that, add Slack messages, file transfers, videos, etc. It quickly adds up, and for many businesses, it amounts to a problem.

The data we create on a daily basis has to go somewhere, although it’s easy to overlook digital data since in most cases, you don’t actually see it. But if you think about it like document storage in a filing cabinet, you realize that data takes up space, and it requires organization and attention in order to be useful and not become a drain on your resources.

We’re talking about information ROT—that is, redundant, outdated or obsolete, and trivial data. Like an overstuffed, unorganized filing cabinet in a corner of your office, data storage can create a problem if left unattended.

YOUR STORED DATA CAN CREATE INFORMATION ROT
Information ROT isn’t a rare issue for accounting firms and businesses to have. In fact, it’s incredibly common, and it’s tough to combat due to the sheer volume of data that we end up storing. It literally adds up on a daily basis.

ROT is another way of saying digital debris—virtual information that you don’t actually need but is taking up space and likely costing you money.

Most information ROT is rooted in just a handful of origins:
• Redundant copies of documents and files
• Outdated or obsolete files (unsent drafts, old documents, data from employees who are no longer with the firm, etc.)
• Meaningless/unnecessary files (e.g., files you downloaded and forgot to delete)
It’s not hard to see how such data ROT occurs, and it’s important to understand why it can be damaging to your operation.

ROT WASTES RESOURCES
Perhaps the most …