Electronic archiving: definition and key challenges

As businesses produce and exchange an ever-increasing volume of digital documents, the question of how to preserve them securely and durably has become a strategic concern.
Electronic archiving is far more than simple storage, it is a structured process that ensures the evidential value, security, and availability of information over time.

In France and across Europe, this practice is governed by a strict regulatory framework requiring organisations to maintain the integrity and traceability of their digital archives.

This guide explains what electronic archiving is, explores its standards, challenges, advantages, and the main types of solutions available.

Sommaire

• What is electronic archiving? Definition and operation
• Standards and regulations
• Key challenges of electronic archiving
• Business benefits of electronic archiving
• Challenges and limitations of electronic archiving
• Choosing an archiving provider

Key takeaways

• Electronic archiving secures digital documents while ensuring integrity, availability, and readability.
• The main solutions include DMS (Document Management System), EAS (Electronic Archiving System), and digital safes, depending on the company’s operational and compliance needs.
• The EAS manages the complete lifecycle of archived records and provides strong evidential value.
• Qualified electronic archiving offers additional guarantees and is recognised at the European legal level.
• Core standards (NF Z42-013, ISO 14641-1, CEN/TS 18170) establish best practices for securing and certifying the evidential value of digital documents.
• Companies benefit from time savings, reduced costs, operational efficiency, and greater trust in their digital archives.

What is electronic archiving? Definition and operation

Definition of electronic archiving

Electronic archiving within a business context means preserving digital documents over time while guaranteeing three essential principles:

• Integrity: the document must remain authentic and unaltered.
• Retention period: the document must remain usable for a legally or contractually defined period.
• Availability: the document must be easily accessible to authorised users in a secure and traceable manner.

Electronic archiving therefore goes beyond simple document management, it is a strategic process that safeguards a company’s information assets and ensures the legal validity of its records.

DMS, EAS, and Digital Safe: key solutions for businesses

DMS (Document Management System)

A DMS enables companies to centralise, organise, and efficiently retrieve documents. It serves primarily operational needs, improving information flow and collaboration between teams.
Such systems manage the entire document lifecycle, from creation and validation to publication and classification, and often include version tracking.

Some DMS solutions offer automation features such as scheduled retention or deletion. However, a DMS alone does not guarantee the long-term preservation or evidential value of documents.

EAS (Electronic Archiving System)

An Electronic Archiving Sysytem ensures the integrity, authenticity, and traceability of digital archives. It is the reference solution for organisations seeking to securely preserve their documentary assets while meeting regulatory obligations.

Beyond compliance, EAS systems address two major concerns:

• Reversibility: the ability to switch providers and transfer archives without data loss or compliance issues.
• Long-term readability: maintaining accessibility over decades through format conversion and migration mechanisms.

Qualified Electronic Archiving

Qualified electronic archiving represents the highest level of security and compliance for preserving digital records. It guarantees strong evidential value, ensuring documents retain full legal and regulatory validity.

This service relies on Qualified Trust Service Providers (QTSPs) certified under the European eIDAS v2 Regulation, which formally introduces qualified electronic archiving as a recognised trust service.

The European Commission has proposed a Draft Act outlining implementation details, with official adoption expected by late 2025. Once eIDAS v2 is in force, qualified electronic archiving services will be legally recognised across Europe.

The CEN/TS 18170 technical specification provides the detailed organisational and technical framework for QTSPs, defining requirements for integrity, authenticity, traceability, and long-term preservation, and serves as the reference for certification.

For companies handling sensitive or regulated information, qualified electronic archiving is a strategic investment, combining legal compliance, technical reliability, and enhanced trust with clients and partners.

Digital Safe

A digital safe (or digital vault) is a simpler, often more affordable solution designed for individuals or SMEs. It allows secure storage of sensitive documents such as payslips, contracts, and financial statements.

Depending on the service level, it may meet certain regulatory requirements, but it typically lacks advanced management features such as automated classification, secure destruction, or granular access control.

Types of archiving by duration

Permanent archiving

Permanent archiving applies to documents that must be retained over the long term, sometimes indefinitely, to meet legal, fiscal, or regulatory obligations, as well as to preserve the company’s historical and corporate heritage. It requires the implementation of rigorous processes to ensure that these documents remain intact, readable, and accessible throughout their retention period, while maintaining their traceability and security against any alteration or loss.

Active archiving

Active archiving applies to documents that continue to be regularly consulted or used by the company’s operational teams. It goes beyond secure storage, offering features that enable fast, controlled, and traceable access so that users can efficiently make use of information while complying with security and confidentiality requirements. This type of archiving therefore ensures the immediate availability of documents essential to the organisation’s day-to-day operations.

Hybrid archiving

Hybrid archiving combines both paper and digital documents, providing organisations undergoing digital transformation with continuity in the management of their archives. This approach makes it possible to secure and organise information from different sources while applying consistent rules for classification, retention, and disposal, and facilitating access to information regardless of its format. Hybrid archiving therefore represents a strategic step for companies seeking to gradually transition to a fully digital environment without losing the value of their physical archives.

Standards and regulations

Qualified electronic archiving is governed by strict standards and frameworks that define its technical and organisational requirements:

Standard / Reference	Type	Year	Purpose and key points
EIDAS V2	EU Regulation	2023-2025	Introduces qualified electronic archiving as a trust service under European law.
CEN/TS 18170	European Standard	18 April 2025	Defines the technical and organisational framework for QTSPs under eIDAS v2.
NF Z42-013	French Standard	2009	Establishes the technical and organisational requirements for digital archiving (basis for ISO 14641).
NF 461	AFNOR Certification	–	Certification of an Electronic Archiving System based on the NF Z42-013 standard, used to verify that an EAS complies with French regulatory requirements.
GA Z42-013	Implementation Guide	2010	Provides reference methods to ensure integrity of electronic documents (international equivalent: ISO 14641-1).
ISO 14641	International Standard	2012	Global standard derived from NF Z42-013, defining best practices for electronic archiving.

These standards help organisations ensure their archived documents retain recognised evidential value.

Key challenges of electronic archiving

Compliance

Meeting applicable standards and legal frameworks is essential to mitigate legal and regulatory risks, particularly in the event of audits, litigation, or inspections.

Security and risk management

Electronic archiving protects against document loss, tampering, or accidental deletion. It also strengthens data governance and cybersecurity.

Fast access

Beyond security, archiving enables immediate, secure access to information, improving efficiency and responsiveness across the organisation.

Business benefits of electronic archiving

Implementing an electronic archiving system delivers multiple advantages:

• Time savings in document retrieval
• Reduced physical storage costs
• Secure remote accessibility
• Legal and regulatory compliance
• Lower paper management expenses
• Greater operational efficiency
• Enhanced trust from users and partners thanks to evidential reliability

Challenges and limitations of electronic archiving

Although electronic archiving offers many advantages, its implementation and operation present several challenges that companies must anticipate.

Technological evolution and obsolescence

Technologies evolve rapidly, and archiving systems must be regularly updated to remain compatible with new file formats, software, and infrastructure. The obsolescence of storage media or digital formats poses a real risk: without a migration and maintenance plan, documents can become unreadable or inaccessible over the long term.

Sensitive data management and compliance

Archived records may contain personal or confidential information. Ensuring compliance with GDPR, HDS, and other sectoral regulations is essential, along with encryption, access control, and audit logging.

Regulatory adaptation

Legal and regulatory requirements for archiving evolve regularly. Companies must therefore closely monitor regulatory changes, adapt their internal policies, and ensure that their archiving systems remain compliant to avoid penalties or disputes.

Cybersecurity

Electronic archiving exposes companies to IT risks, such as cyberattacks, data theft, or unauthorised access. Security must be implemented on multiple levels: strong authentication, data encryption, access logs, regular backups, and business continuity plans in case of incidents.

Organisational complexity and internal processes

Implementing an effective archiving system requires training teams, defining clear processes for the document lifecycle, and coordinating across different departments. Without user engagement and proper governance, electronic archiving may be underutilised or improperly applied, reducing its evidential value and operational effectiveness.

Choosing an archiving provider

Selecting a provider for electronic archiving is a strategic decision, as it determines the security, compliance, and long-term preservation of a company’s digital documents. It is not just a matter of choosing a technical supplier, but of partnering with an organisation capable of meeting regulatory requirements, ensuring the evidential value of documents, and supporting the company in managing its information assets.

Secure and compliant hosting

It is essential to ensure that the third-party archiving provider offers secure hosting that complies with local and European standards and is appropriate for the sensitivity of the data being stored. The hosting must include robust physical and IT security measures, such as data encryption, server redundancy, and business continuity plans, to prevent any loss or compromise of information.

Independent and sustainable technologies

It is recommended to prioritise proprietary technological solutions. This independence helps avoid issues related to data portability and reliance on a single provider, while ensuring the long-term preservation of documents in accordance with legal obligations and best practices in electronic archiving.

Alignment with business profile

The choice of provider should also take into account the company’s specific characteristics, such as its size, industry (banking, insurance, healthcare, manufacturing, etc.), and particular regulatory requirements (eIDAS, HDS, GDPR, etc.). These factors influence the type of solution to implement, the required level of security, and the features necessary to automate the document lifecycle, ensuring proper classification, retention, and disposal in compliance with applicable standards.

Conclusion

Electronic archiving in businesses today is a key driver of digital transformation and information governance. Beyond simple storage, it lies at the heart of regulatory compliance, data security, and operational efficiency.

While qualified electronic archiving represents the highest level of security and evidential value, not all companies necessarily require this level of rigor. Non-qualified electronic archiving solutions, when based on technologies that comply with best practices and applicable standards, can already ensure the long-term preservation, integrity, and traceability of documents within a reliable and controlled framework.

Therefore, the choice of an archiving solution should primarily be based on an analysis of each organisation’s business, regulatory, and operational needs, in order to select the level of service best suited to its compliance and performance requirements.