Database and File Repository Growth

The growth of the database and the file repository content (for form archives, form state content, and document attachments, if used) is directly related to the number of actions in a process, and the amount of data captured on the forms at each action (each step in the process).

The amount of data captured furthermore depends on if you want to capture the data in all of the actions in detail, or you want to capture only the final copy of the data at the end of each process (the final result). Capturing all action data will provide the ability to trace back in a very granular way to each step in the process to see the data entered at each step. Typically this has an impact requiring about 3 to 10 times more disk space than capturing only the ending result data. Note that even if granular form data in not maintained, WorkflowGen always provides the ability to see who took what step, at what date and time, during the process; only the form data content would be purged for previous steps before the final closing step in the process.

An approximation would be to multiply the number of processes launched, actions per process, and estimates of data capture on a yearly basis.

Example with full data archiving

Assumptions

• 10 actions per process on average over all processes in production

• 10,000 process launches per year (× 10 = 100,000 actions)

• Typical average data stored in the database per action of about 3 kB

• Typical average form snapshot archive and state content per action of about 50 kB

• Assuming an average attachment size of 300 kB per request (some actions have no attachments)

Results

• Approximately 300 MB of database growth per year

• Approximately 5 GB of file repository growth per year for the form archive and content

• Approximately 3 GB of additional file repository for attachments

Example with limited data archiving

Assumptions

• 10 actions per process on average over all processes in production

• 10,000 process launches per year (× 10 = 100,000 actions)

• Typical cumulative one-time data stored at process end of about 5 kB

Results

• Approximately 50 MB of database growth per year

• Approximately 500 MB of file repository growth per year for the form archive and content

• Approximately 300 MB of additional file repository for attachments