A CISO's Guide to GDPR Compliance with SAP ILM
The EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) set a new global standard for data privacy. For any organization processing the data of EU citizens, compliance is not optional. A "store everything forever" approach is a direct violation of the regulation. This guide explains how SAP Information Lifecycle Management (ILM) is the essential tool for meeting GDPR's stringent data retention and destruction requirements.
CORE GDPR PRINCIPLES IMPACTING DATA ARCHIVING
While GDPR is extensive, two core principles have a direct and profound impact on your data management strategy:
1. Storage Limitation (Article 5)
This principle states that personal data must be "kept in a form which permits identification of data subjects for no longer than is necessary for the purposes for which the personal data are processed." In simple terms, you cannot keep personal data forever. You must have a defined, legally justifiable retention period for every type of personal data you store.
2. Right to Erasure / "Right to be Forgotten" (Article 17)
This gives individuals the right to request the deletion of their personal data once it's no longer necessary for the purpose it was collected. Your organization must be able to respond to these requests in a timely and verifiable manner.
SAP ILM: THE ENGINE FOR GDPR COMPLIANCE
Standard data archiving is not enough to meet these requirements because it doesn't typically handle data destruction. SAP ILM enhances archiving with a powerful, policy-based rules engine that is specifically designed to address GDPR.
How SAP ILM Solves the GDPR Challenge:
- Automated Retention Policies: Using the ILM Policestudio (transaction
IRM_CUST), you can define precise retention rules for your data. For example: "For customer master data, the retention period begins at the end of the business relationship. The data must be retained for 7 years for financial reasons, after which it must be destroyed." - Verifiable Data Destruction: ILM doesn't just archive data; it can securely and permanently destroy it from the database and the archive once the final retention period has expired. This process is fully logged, providing an auditable trail to prove compliance with an erasure request.
- Legal Holds: ILM allows you to place a "legal hold" on specific data, preventing its destruction even if its retention period has passed. This is critical for managing litigation while still adhering to overall GDPR rules.
CONCLUSION: FROM DATA ARCHIVING TO DATA LIFECYCLE MANAGEMENT
GDPR forces companies to evolve from simple data archiving to true Information Lifecycle Management. It's no longer enough to just move data to a cheaper storage tier. You must have a complete, auditable process for managing data from its creation to its final, secure destruction. SAP ILM is the standard, indispensable tool for achieving this within your SAP landscape.
IS YOUR SAP SYSTEM GDPR COMPLIANT?
Don't let data privacy regulations become a source of business risk. Sapixos provides expert workshops to assess your GDPR readiness and help you design and implement a robust SAP ILM strategy that ensures full compliance.
Schedule a GDPR & ILM Readiness Assessment