4.12 Store Data According to Visitor Needs

Optimize storage of data according to what is most important, relevant, and required in service to visitors. This will help to avoid unnecessary storage of data that may not be useful or valuable, which will reduce required infrastructure, power, and data transfer.

Criteria

Reduce Redundancy: Remove unnecessary and redundant data from your servers, whether it is single-use (dark data) or abandoned.
Expiration Dates: Create data with an expiration date. Excess data is a form of technical debt, and routinely cleaning up old data needs to be normalized.
Classify And Tag: Use a data classification / tagging policy to make it easier to find, handle, and remove.
Justify Storage: Store data only when it is difficult to recreate.
Optimize Logging: Optimize log collection, storage (off-site), and rotation; scheduling during low-activity hours and using carbon-neutral backup providers.
Asset Downloads: Ensure long-term assets, especially those of a large size, are made available for download.

Impact

Low

Effort

Low

Benefits

Environmental:
Reduced storage usage results in reduced storage requirements.
Security:
Reduced storage of personal information reduces the risk of compromise.
Economic:
Reduced storage usage will result in reduced prices.

GRI

materials: Low
energy: Low
water: Low
emissions: Low

Example

Code:

Accept-Encoding: zstd, gzip, br, deflate

HTTP compression headers can be used to control the response.

Resources

View the Guideline