For many companies and government agencies, accurate Audit and History information is important and in some cases, mandated.
For the purposes of this article, the following definitions are presented:
• Audit – which record was inserted, updated, or deleted, when, and by who
• History – storage of earlier values from records that have changed
Considerations for Audit and History System Designs
In designing a comprehensive Audit and History (A/H) system, a number of considerations must be made.
Among them:
• Is this A/H functionality being built into the system early in the design process or is an existing system being retrofitted with the A/H functionality?
• For what data should A/H be maintained? Partial? Complete?
• Will the history information tie into systems external to the databases/file systems under direct control of the immediate system?
• Where should the functionality be located – client, midtier, or database?
• Is A/H important enough that transactions should fail if the A/H fails?
• If the A/H functionality is based in the database, will the client log in to the database with the user’s own id or one or more generic accounts?
• How long should A/H information be stored?