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Relativity Data Management: How Automation Simplifies Data Lifecycles

Written by CaseFlow Team | Jul 2, 2025 12:00:00 PM

If you manage a Relativity environment, you know that active cases need immediate access, older Matters should transition to Repository mode, inactive data belongs in cold storage, and completed cases require archiving. But each manual decision impacts accessibility and cost, storage expenses continue climbing, and overage notifications arrive with unwelcome regularity.

Most organizations rely on manual processes to navigate these transitions. Litigation support teams dedicate significant time to generating activity reports, reviewing client agreements, and coordinating with project managers to determine which Matters are ready for the next stage. As data volumes expand, these administrative tasks consume increasingly valuable resources.

The Relativity Data Lifecycle Challenge

Relativity data typically flows through multiple stages: Staging → Repository → Review → Cold Storage → Archive. Each serves a specific purpose with a different cost structure.

  • Staging prepares data for processing and importing into Relativity. It serves as a temporary holding area for ARM archives for restoration or raw data prior to processing. Billing for Staging is calculated based on the highest consumption peak during a given month. However, many early adopters of Relativity have run out of space and are paying large overage fees.
  • Repository workspaces store documents and coding decisions for future use, which is particularly useful for early case assessment workflows. Existing Review workspaces can be converted to Repository ones to save on costs when large volumes of data aren't being actively reviewed. To be charged at the repository rate for the current month, you need to install the Repository in a new workspace within twenty-four hours of creating it.
  • Review workspaces are used to review, code, and produce documents for active and ongoing Matters. Data can be pushed to Review workspaces from Repository workspaces using links.
  • Cold storage stores inactive cases for extended periods, with workspaces that can be easily brought back online on short notice. Workspaces transitioned to cold storage are billed at their original data tier rate until the start of the following calendar month, when billing automatically switches to the cold storage rate.
  • Archive represents the final stage, where ARM archives can be moved to lower-cost storage like Azure Blob, AWS S3, other cloud storage, or offline storage.

Manual Data Management Problems

With high volumes of clients and Matters in a Relativity instance, transitioning data through these stages requires substantial manual effort. Litigation support teams find themselves running activity reports, reviewing client agreements, and coordinating case transitions from active status to Repository mode, cold storage, or archive.

Identifying which Matters are ready for lifecycle transitions presents its own challenges. With rapidly growing data volumes and diverse client agreements, monitoring workspace stages can demand dedicated resources. Teams must continuously generate activity reports and coordinate with clients and project managers to stay current.

The archiving process adds another layer of difficulty. Administrators must first generate reports to confirm a Matter's archive readiness and then coordinate with clients and team members to ensure that the transition won't disrupt ongoing work or violate retention agreements.

How Automation Simplifies the Process

Continuous Monitoring and Smart Identification

CaseFlow continuously monitors the entire Relativity instance to provide visibility and automatically move Matters to appropriate stages in the data lifecycle. By using configurations to define “activity” in each Matter, it can accurately report inactive Matters ready for transition.

Automated Lifecycle Actions

CaseFlow automatically executes all administrative actions and can be configured at the instance and client/Matter levels. This flexibility enables the service to adapt to different clients' and Matters’ retention agreements.

Additionally, CaseFlow automatically identifies inactive Relativity Matters based on individual configurations that match data retention rules for each client and Matter. Before archiving, it notifies all stakeholders to prevent the case from being inadvertently taken offline. They can stop the auto-archive action by clicking on the notification, which will effectively reset the timer.

Streamlined Data Management Administration

CaseFlow's Actions On-Demand enables administrators to schedule various data lifecycle actions for single or multiple Matters from a single interface. This eliminates the time-consuming process of manually moving them to Repository mode, cold storage, or archiving offline across several Matters on different dates.

The Business Impact

Automated data management reduces storage costs through proactive lifecycle management. By automatically transitioning Matters to appropriate storage tiers, organizations avoid the overage fees that many early RelativityOne adopters are experiencing.

Administrative resources are freed from repetitive manual tasks like running activity reports and coordinating with multiple stakeholders. Teams can focus on higher-value work instead of managing data transitions.

Compliance with retention policies is enhanced through the automated monitoring and execution of lifecycle actions based on client-specific retention agreements. The stakeholder notification system and its safeguard controls ensure proper coordination before any transitions.

The solution scales naturally as data volumes grow, unlike manual processes that become increasingly burdensome with more Matters and clients.

Final Note

Automation shifts data management from reactive to proactive. Instead of scrambling to manage storage costs and coordinate manual transitions, organizations can take control of their Relativity data lifecycle with a purpose-built tool, such as CaseFlow. The result is streamlined operations, reduced costs, and the ability to scale data management as legal technology demands continue to rise.

Ready to take control of your Relativity data lifecycle and eliminate unnecessary costs and wasted time? CaseFlow provides the automation that you need to proactively manage your Relativity storage, seamlessly transitioning cases through Repository, Cold Storage, and Archive based on your specific requirements. Don't let manual processes bog you down; see how CaseFlow can save your law firm time and money. Contact us today, and discover the power of automated Relativity data lifecycle management.