IT Departments are finding the performance of email systems increasingly stretched as data retention requirements continue to grow. With email availability now mission critical, technical teams are also finding increasing time taken up with email management and administration duties.
Tasks include:
- Off-line archiving
- Storage optimization
- Disaster recovery, such as recovering files from back-up systems in the event of mail server issues, corrupt mailboxes, user errors etc
- Retrieving specific mail files, for example after someone has taken over the responsibilities of an employee who has left the organization and requires access to old email for handover purposes
- Dealing with storage overheads inherent in PST files and managing user quotas
- Migration between email platforms
- Involvement in HR and investigatory matters
Email archiving solutions which appear helpful for addressing the needs of growing mail server sizes are often not appropriate for the email retention and search requirements of the wider organization.
For example:
- Archive stores which allow unaudited deletion of emails fail as a compliance tool or source of court evidence
- Back-up tapes do not form a complete record since emails deleted before period back-ups occur are missed
- Search and retrieval processes are rarely set up to realistically handle queries like "find out if an email has ever been sent about subject x", though this kind of request is often made when investigating serious abuse allegations like fraud
Such requirements may demand a formal retention tool with more advanced features beyond pure archiving and bulk retrieval.