Differences between a records archive and in-place records

The following table describes differences between what you can do with records in a record center and with records that are managed in-place in a collaboration site. The differences are presented from the point of view of both records managers and employees collaborating on a project team. 

Note:- This information is taken from MS tech-net site and published in this blog as part of social collaboration cause

Differences between a records archive and in-place records

Factor	Records archive	In-place records
Managing record retention	The content organizer automatically puts new records in the correct folder in the archive’s file plan, based on metadata.	There may be different policies for records and active documents based on the current content type or location.
Restrict which users can view records	Yes. The archive specifies the permissions for the record.	No. Permissions do not change when a document becomes a record. However, you can restrict which users can edit and delete records.
Ease of locating records (for records managers)	Easier. All records are in one location.	Harder. Records are spread across multiple collaboration sites.
Maintain all document versions as records	The user must explicitly send each version of a document to the archive.	Automatic, assuming versioning is turned on.
Ease of locating information (for team collaborators)	Harder, although a link to the document can be added to the collaboration site when the document becomes a record.	Easier.
Clutter of collaboration site	Collaboration site contains only active documents.	Collaboration site contains active and inactive documents (records), although you can create views to display only records.
Ability to audit records	Yes.	Dependent on audit policy of the collaboration site.
Administrative security	A records manager can manage the records archive.	Collaboration site administrators have permission to manage records and active documents.

The following table describes differences between the two records management approaches that might affect how you manage IT resources.

Resource differences between a records archive and in-place records

Factor	Records archive	In-place records
Number of sites to manage	More sites. That is,, there is a separate archive in addition to collaboration sites.	Fewer sites.
Scalability	Relieves database size pressure on collaboration sites.	Maximum site collection size reached sooner.
Ease of administration	Separate site or farm for records.	No additional site provisioning work beyond what is already needed for the sites that have active documents.
Storage	Can store records on different storage medium.	Active documents and records stored together.