What should you do with older documents in the database to reduce system load?

Archiving older documents in the database is a recommended practice to manage system load effectively while ensuring data retention and accessibility. When documents are archived, they are moved to a separate storage area, which reduces the volume of data that the active database has to process and manage. This process maintains the performance and speed of the system, as a lighter database consumes fewer resources.

Archiving is specifically designed to retain documents in a manner that allows for future retrieval if necessary, which is important for legal and compliance reasons. Once the documents are archived, they can be deleted from the active database without the risk of losing critical information.

Other options do not align with best practices. Extracting and deleting might lead to loss of important data, while backing up and deleting adds unnecessary steps, as backups are typically intended for secure storage rather than reducing system load. Simply deleting documents without archiving them can lead to data loss and might contravene regulatory requirements regarding data retention. Thus, the archiving process strikes the right balance between reducing system load and ensuring data is not lost.