Email Archiving

There are so many emails that a big organization receives that it can become a serious issue to store them and the performance can also become a problem for the email server. The emails are taken from the server for indexing and archiving on a regular basis and this is done for secondary retention. If someone needs an email later, then it can be located after a search in the archive and retrieved later.

However it needs to be remembered that not all tools to archive emails are the same. And thus the need for comparing the email archiving tools. It has to interface with the database and the email system, and still have some penalties against performance for an email archive application. The retention rules need to be planned in advance and the administrator has to consider search and index capabilities that are required. Scalability is also an issue because the quantity of emails will go up in the future.

Those looking for an archiving tool need to consider all this. Review the acquisition of tired storage issues – this is a great place where you can start. What are the major criteria based on which you should be comparing the email tools for archiving – let us take a look.

Current software compatibility

Is the tool interfacing closely with the database and the email system that you have? You need to consider the many platforms, their compatibility and its extent for each such platform. A product that has a narrow focus may be good for a small company where there is no plan to change the platform, but those that are big often use several database and email systems – they will gain using a tool where there is compatibility across the platforms.

Performance & Scalability

Related applications are affected by the archiving tools. When there are more users and email boxes, the storage limit also goes up, and the archive performance may go down. In businesses that are growing rapidly, this may become a major issue. Those in charge of administering the email archive need to understand the performance and the scalability issues. Up-front testing should reveal any performance related issues or scaling related problems.

The existing deletion and retention policies need not be changed. You can configure the tools in such a way that these policies are accommodated. However it may be difficult to opt for the greatest retention rules. You should try to map the existing retention laws with the tool for archiving as this is easier than the creation of new rules. So start with the current documented retention policy. And if there are no such policies, you will need to cerate them first in consultation with the people who matter – take legal advise too when you are doing this.

Does your archive have enough storage space? Archiving tools need storage on a storage array or in another server. Storage needs are also dependent on what the businesses retention policies are. If you are to hold on to emails for a longer duration, naturally you will be in the need of more storage space. However in most archiving tools you will find technologies that are able to reduce data and this reduces the demand for storage by compressing the data and eliminating duplication. Give an estimate to the vendor and familiarize him with the environment, email server and the compliance issues and he can then guide you.

You need to evaluate the features and the product strengths. All the archiving tools can store and retrieve data ad so you should be looking for one in which the features meet your needs. If you are worried about litigation issues, then perhaps one in which indexing and metadata creation is a priority will be better for you. However if your priority is disaster recovery or business continuance, perhaps a tool that allows remote replication is what you need. And something offering data duplication is ideal when the storage needs are minimal.

Technology of data duplication – are they suitable? Data duplication has become so important, but litigators wanting the complete content do not accept it at times. So when you are implementing an archival system for email for litigation, you have to ensure that the duplication will not create a problem particularly for legal reasons.

Some popular products for email archiving:

1. C2C; Archive One
2. EMC Corp.; EmailXtender Archive Edition
3. Fortiva Inc.; Fortiva Archive
4. GFI Software; MailArchiver software
5. IBM; CommonStore software family
6. MessageSolution Inc.; Enterprise Email Archiving Suite 4.0
7. Mimosa Systems Inc.; NearPoint for Microsoft Exchange Server
8. Open Text Corp.; Email Archiving software
9. Quest Software Inc.; Archive Manager
10. Sherpa Software; Archive Attender for Microsoft Exchange
11. Symantec Corp.; Enterprise Vault
12. Waterford Technologies Inc.; MailMeter Archive
13. Zantaz Inc.; Digital Safe
14. Zantaz Inc.; Enterprise Archive Solution (EAS)
15. Zantaz Inc.; First Archive