Ohio Administrative Code
Title 3341 - Bowling Green State University
Chapter 3341-6 - Compliance with Occupational Safety and Health Standards
Section 3341-6-53 - Information system and database decommissioning policy
Universal Citation: OH Admin Code 3341-6-53
Current through all regulations passed and filed through September 16, 2024
(A) Policy statement and purpose
All information systems, applications and/or databases have a life cycle. The university must have a policy that provides a pragmatic means of disposing of old, end-of-life information systems and databases that are aligned with university records retention policies and schedules. This policy shall govern how university information systems, applications and/or databases are decommissioned in compliance with university records retention policies and schedules.
(B) Policy
This policy applies to any information system, application and/or database that have been procured with university funds by any unit or employee of Bowling Green state university or any others who provide services or act under the name of the university, including contractors, vendors and consultants.
(C) Policy definitions
(1)
Information system: a computer system or set of components for collecting,
creating, storing, processing, and distributing information; typically
including hardware and software, system users, and the data
itself.
(2)
Application or application program: an application
program (application or app for short) is a computer program designed to
perform a group of coordinated functions, tasks, or activities for the benefit
of the user.
(3)
Database: a comprehensive collection of related data
organized for convenient access, generally in a computer.
(4)
Database schema:
the skeleton structure that represents the logical view of the entire database.
It defines how the data is organized and how the relations among them are
associated.
(5)
Metadata: the data providing information about one or
more aspects of other data; it is used to summarize basic information about
data which can make tracking and working with specific data
easier.
(6)
Decommission: the act of ceasing to use an information
system, application and/or database and appropriately disposing of it in a
manner compliant with university records retention policies and information
technology services policies.
(7)
University
procedures: the operating procedures developed by the responsible unit to
implement this university policy. University procedures must be consistent with
and not conflict with university policies. Procedures that conflict with
university policies are void and unenforceable.
Any procedures developed to operationalize this policy must be reviewed and approved by the responsible unit prior to adoption and publication.
(D) Decommissioning information systems, applications and/or databases
(1)
When an
information system, application and/or database reaches its end-of-life and is
either being replaced or is no longer needed, any unit may seek to decommission
the information system, application and/or database by making a formal request
to decommission said information system, application or database by delivering
that request to information technology services. At a minimum, any requests to
decommission an information system, application and/or database must be
formally coordinated and approved in writing by each of the following three
units:
(a)
The
university unit that is the primary user, or owner of the information system,
application and/or database
(b)
Information
technology services
(c)
The university records manager
(2)
When
decommissioning an information system, application and/or database, records
retention policies may require that the records contained within the
information system, application and/or database must be retained beyond the
useful life of the information system, application and/or database. Prior to
decommissioning an information system, application and/or database, the
responsible office, with the counsel of the university records manager, will
inventory the types of records contained within the said information system,
application and/or database to ensure that the records contained therein will
be maintained according to published university records retention
schedules.
(3)
With very few exceptions, information systems and/or
applications all have an underlying database that collects the transaction
history of an information system and/or application over the life cycle of the
information system and/or application. For the sake of records retention
purposes and to pragmatically avoid unnecessary software licensing, the
underlying databases may be decoupled from their original information system
and/or application if, and only if, the data contained within the underlying
database can be retrieved in its original context to meet valid records
requests throughout the required records retention schedule. For the avoidance
of doubt, the following are considered adequate alternative ways of retaining
databases for records retention purposes:
(a)
Prior to
decommissioning an information system and/or application, capture each and
every standard report that comes standard with said information system and/or
application into a .pdf document if practical.
(b)
If it is
impractical to capture all of an information systems' and/or applications'
standard reports, the underlying database may be retained for records retention
purposes. However, this alternative may only be employed if, and only if, the
metadata or data schemas associated with the database can also be documented
for future use in retrieving records via database queries to render records to
satisfy any valid records requests.
(c)
Finally, if
neither of the above two alternatives can be achieved, then information
technology services must retain the original information system, application
and/or database for records retention purposes until all record series
retention schedules have expired.
(4)
As each record
series reaches its record retention expiration date, information technology
services will coordinate and seek approval to purposefully destroy records
according to university records retention policies and
procedures.
Disclaimer: These regulations may not be the most recent version. Ohio may have more current or accurate information. We make no warranties or guarantees about the accuracy, completeness, or adequacy of the information contained on this site or the information linked to on the state site. Please check official sources.
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