Agencies must design and implement migration strategies to counteract hardware and software dependencies of electronic records whenever the records must be maintained and used beyond the life of the information system in which the records are originally created or captured. To successfully protect records against technological obsolescence, agencies must:

(a) Determine if the NARA-approved retention period for the records will be longer than the life of the system where they are currently stored. If so, plan for the migration of the records to a new system before the current system is retired.

(b) Carry out upgrades of hardware and software in such a way as to retain the functionality and integrity of the electronic records created in them. Retention of record functionality and integrity requires:

(1) Retaining the records in a usable format until their authorized disposition date. Where migration includes conversion of records, ensure that the authorized disposition of the records can be implemented after conversion;

(2) Any necessary conversion of storage media to provide compatibility with current hardware and software; and

(3) Maintaining a link between records and their metadata through conversion or migration, including capture of all relevant associated metadata at the point of migration (for both the records and the migration process).

(c) Ensure that migration strategies address non-active electronic records that are stored off-line.