7.2 What about the data?

There is an obvious gap in our system rebuild; data.

We can build our server simply enough as outlined in the previous section, but what about the data we enter? Admittedly, not an issue in our simple example (beyond treating the web site as standing data) but certainly an issue in general.

There are different classes of data controlled and generated by our system. Broadly we can consider three classes of data:

  • Transient—this is data that we can generally afford to lose. Or, more accurately, its loss has little impact on our business. I include in this classification things like log files7.
  • Standing—this is data that changes seldom if at all. An example might be the tax rate applied on our shopping website.
  • Dynamic—this is what most people consider ‘data’. This is all the information we capture that, if lost, would have a material effect on our business.

The management of data is a complex topic and we will discuss it at length in Chapter 16.

7The exception to this being in regulated environments where log file data often forms part of audit data and consequently becomes of significant value and consequently is treated as dynamic data.