What Is Data-at-Rest?
Data-at-rest is a term that refers to digital data sets that reside in a long-term storage medium like databases or file systems. The “rest” part means that the data sets are not currently being moved over a network from one location to another. The key significance of this term is to differentiate this type of data set from “data-in-motion,” which is data that is being transmitted over a network from one location to another. Since most data sets today are data-at-rest, the term is typically unnecessary as a standalone term. It is generally only used to call out a difference from data-in-motion.
Examples of Data-at-Rest
Almost all data used in enterprises today are considered data-at-rest, though there is a trend towards more use of data in motion. Examples include:
- Customer contact information
- Sales orders
- Call tracking data
- Revenue figures
- Expense figures
- Historical clickstream data
These types of data generally reside in technologies designed for long-term storage. Examples of such technologies include:
- Databases
- Data warehouses
- Data lakes
- File systems
- Cloud object storage
- Desktop tools (e.g., spreadsheets)
