Archiving data records serves the reduction of the data stock in the productive system to the extent necessary for operation. The storage of fully processed data sets (e.g. for research) requires very large resources in terms of storage volume and processing capacities. Therefore, the archiving-relevant and completed data records are exported from the current data tables on a regular basis.. The archive can be optimized for the prevailing queries in order to speed up the searches in the larger amounts of data. Depending on requirements, archives can be outsourced so that the queries do not impair productive operation. The periods of data retention in the production and archiving systems are usually determined in the conception phase. If central data warehouses are used for archiving and research across system boundaries, archiving in the WMS is usually not necessary and the data warehouse is supplied with the corresponding data via an interface. From a data warehouse, cross-system information can then be compiled.