Archive Strategy

In our Inventory Control database we have tables that grow and grow and grow
as the database gets used. Tables like StockResults, Deliveries, StockCount
etc.
I want to archive the data into archive tables, which I can later moved to
another database, or even another server. This way I'll have current tables
and archived tables (eg. Deliveries and Deliveries_Archive).
Here are some considerations:
1. We will need to report on both the current tables and the archived tables
.
2. data that is archived might need to be put back into its current table.
What I'm after is some advice on what strategy to use.
Is there a framework or design for doing this that would help me ?
Do you have an archive strategy that works for you ?
Do you have a clever naming convention that you use ?
Any good articles on this ?
Any help would appreciated.
Thanks,
CraigCheck this link.. Hope this helps.
http://www.dbazine.com/sql/sql-articles/charran12|||Why do you feel it is necessary to archive the data?|||To keep the transactional database's size down
We want to do this because
1. speeds up backups
2. if we have a problem and need to restore, that will be quicker
3. we often backup the db and download it to a testing server to test new
functionality -- the smaller db will download quicker