Reduce Data Retention Costs

B.

The BEST approach to optimizing retention costs for an IT organization that is retaining more data and spending significantly more on data retention than its competitors is to re-validate the organization's risk tolerance and re-align the retention policy (Option B). Here's why:

Option A, which involves requiring all business cases to contain data deletion and retention plans, would only address future data retention practices and would not immediately address the issue of the organization's current high data retention costs. Additionally, this approach may not be effective in reducing costs if the retention policy is not aligned with the organization's risk tolerance.

Option C, which involves redefining the retention policy to align with industry best practices, may lead to a reduction in retention costs, but only if the industry best practices are aligned with the organization's risk tolerance. The organization may be retaining more data than its competitors because of its unique risk profile, so blindly following industry best practices may not be the most effective solution.

Option D, which involves moving high-risk and medium-risk data backups to cloud storage, may also reduce retention costs, but it would not address the underlying issue of why the organization is retaining more data than its competitors. Additionally, moving to cloud storage may introduce new risks that need to be carefully considered.

Revalidating the organization's risk tolerance and re-aligning the retention policy would involve analyzing the types of data the organization is retaining, the purpose for which the data is being retained, and the potential risks and costs associated with the data. This approach would help ensure that the organization is retaining only the data that is necessary and appropriate for its business needs and risk profile, while minimizing retention costs. It would also help ensure that the retention policy is aligned with the organization's overall risk management strategy.