Understanding Email Archiving

Email Archiving

The pervasiveness and conduct business continues to fuel email growth. However, today’s business must be able to mange email growth while satisfying requirements for email availability, retention, and content-oriented retrieval. Content-oriented retrieval is of particular relevance in regulatory audits or electronic discovery, in which emails associated with a particular keyword or relevant to a specific topic are frequently sought. Email archiving applications and solutions address both of these technical and business requirements.

A email archiving system is simply a stand- alone application that works with your email server to help you manage email. For example , email archiving captures and preserves all email traffic flowing in and out of the email server. It processes the email data and stores it on magnetic disk storage. When the need arises to search historical email for internal investigations or for a court-ordered legal discovery, you can search thousands of email records in seconds by using search tools embedded in the email archiving system.

Below are the few questions for email admin to understand whether he required the email archiving solution or not.

1. Users are constantly asking for more mailbox capacity.
2. HR is calling you to search email and you are in panic.
3. A major law suit is pending and email records are part of it.
4. Your email server is full and you need to add five new employees.
5. Industry regulations require that you preserve email for five year.
6. Email is being lost in local PST files.
7. Attachment files are filling your email server.
8. Your email server just plain runs slow.

In-house and Hosted Email Archiving solution.

In-house email archiving solutions are installed on a dedicated server in the same data centre as the email server. The email archiving server access the email archive using their email client via the existing company network. Sensitive corporate data is kept and controlled by your employees in your facility.

The archived email can be searched as many times as needed for discovery. In-house email archival solutions are customizable and are available from multiple vendors to support the leading email applications. Email archiving software is typically licensed by the number of  mailboxes and additional fees apply for support and maintenance. Long-term costs can be noticeably lower than hosted solutions.

Hosted Solution

Hosted email archiving solutions are an option for customers who don’t wish to install their own email archiving solutions in-house for whatever reason. For what’s usually a monthly fee, a number of mailboxes can be archived off-site with no on-site setup required. Because the email is captured while in transit, all email applications are supported. With a hosted email archiving solution, you need not worry about managing the email archival servers and you can access archived email via a web-based search application provided by the hosted service provider. This solution usually has lover start-up costs, but service costs can be high over the ling-term.

To reduce the amount of email data on the email application server, email archival solutions remove email and attachments using policies based on the age and size - it is that simple. Once the email is removed it is replaced with a small stub file(or shortcut) and it is stored safely in the archive.

Users access archived email in the same manner they access normal email, which is to “double-click” the shortcut in the email client. The email and attachment in the archive can also be searched for legal discovery and compliance.

Storing Email in the Archive

Single Instance Storage

Single Instance Storage (SIS) is a process that email archival solutions use to help reduce total archive storage. The basic process is simple - the archive stores only one copy of each original email and attachment. so it help duplicating the same mail getting send again again from other users. SIS can help reduce total archive storage by as much as 40%.

WORM Disks

 WORM is write once and read many , so are you wondering , what does this have to do with email archiving? well, if your organization operates under the guidance of the securities  and exchange commission then you may already know the answer. In the financial services industry, rule 17a-4 specifies that all email transactions be stored on non-erasable and non- rewritable WORM storage, it is that simple.

Long- Term Archival

How long must email be kept in the archive? well it depends. In the healthcare industry, email information that is part of the patient record must be retained for the life of the patient. In the financial services industry, email must be kept for up to seven year. Every industry is different.

Email Archival solutions manage long-term email storage using admin-defined retention and disposition  polices. Using the policies as a guide, email archival solutions store the email in the archive and protect it against unauthorized access or tampering. When the retention period expires, the email archival system disposes of the email record completely.

Look of email archival solutions that save a digital signature for each email. Years later, the archived email can be compared to its original signature to verify authenticity.

Finding Email in Archive

Finding a file from million of files, will make your eyes red. So your Email archiving solution should and must have a good , fast search capability. 

Email Archiving solution should offer two main functions when every thing shakes out.

1. The ability to capture email and other exchange objects in a secure archive.
2. The ability to quickly and easily find information within the archive.

Having both a quick and simple search capability fro end-users and powerful comprehensive search capabilities for IT and legal are an absolute must for the solutions for IT and legal are an absolute must for the solution to be useful.

The email archiving system should automatically keep access and audit records of who has accessed the archive as an administrator  or auditor and exactly what material they accessed. this audit capability protects all parties from misuse of the archive.

Some time more advanced searches are required to do more gradual searches, you may need to consider the point in time at which the mail-box needs to be accessed - do you need to have access to the mailbox as it was six month ago, four month ago, two weeks ago, or yesterday? Being able to look at Exchange objects at different points in time can give you a bunch of interesting information - like when it was received, when it was deleted, what mailbox folders it resided in, and so on. 

Retention and Disposition of Email in the Archive

Electronic storage isn’t as costly as physical warehouse, but you need to clean each one out eventually to make room for new records. It’s just too expensive in time and money to keep everything. That’s why it’s important to decide what email will be archived and for how long it will be kept.

For effective email retention policy, you need to distribute a written policy to all employees. This policy should include several of the topics shown below.

Effective Date: This will let you know that whether the policy is currently in effect or is an old that should be discarded.

Last Change date and changes made: This information confirms the policy’s authenticity and appropriateness because regulations change over time.

Person or department responsible for the policy: This gives employees or their managers someone to contact with questions.

Scope/Coverage: This includes the geographic limit of the policy (if any), affected departments and offices, and a definition of what company information is covered.

Purpose of the policy statement: This can include a company philosophy statement about the business/legal/regulatory reasons for records retention.

Definitions: Defines what constitutes business records and applicable exceptions.

Responsibilities :

1. Business units/subsidiaries and special departments( such as the legal department).
2. General employees.
3. Records retention coordinators.
4. Procedures for retention and deletion of email and attachment ( if no automated email archiving system is employed).
5. How the emails should be stored ( usually in PST).
6. where those PSTs should be stored, like a network storage target/share drive.
7. How often those files should be cleaned out.
8. How duplicate copies/convenience copies are treated.

A manually managed email retention policy relies on employees understanding and following the email retention policy. the obvious fact is that each employee will interpret the policy a little differently , so in reality you will have many different email retention policies. this fact is the main reason you need to adopt an email archiving solution.

Email retention Policy Benefit.

1. The first is regulatory compliance. Email retention for regulatory compliance isn’t  a choice, but rather an absolute requirement.
2. The second benefit addresses legal risk management. 
3. The last obvious benefit relates to document retention for corporate governance.

Disposition of email from the email achieve.

Based on the retention time period governed by the email archiving solution , records such as email,attachments, and other objects will be automatically deleted out of the email archive if no litigation hold process is in place. some arching solutions automatically hold email that has reached the end of the retention period until someone, usually IT, approves the deletion. As you can imagine, in large system with millions or billions of emails, this isn’t an effective policy.

eDiscovery and Email Archiving

What is eDiscovery : eDiscovery( or electronic discovery) refers to the legal process where electronic data is sought, found, reviewed, and produced with the intent of supporting or providing a case by the opposing legal team. All electronic data is subject to the discovery process, which means that email server message stores,email server backup tapes, network share drives, PDAs, cell phones, USB thumb drives, removable media such as CD or DVD disks, iPod, digital cameras, and even employee personal email accounts are subject to legal eDiscovery. In all cases the judge is the final decision maker as to what data is discoverable.

The litigation Hold: A litigation hold (or stop destruction notice) is the systematic process, including communication to affected employees, to stop the routine records retention/destruction procedures for records that may be required in an upcoming legal proceeding. A litigation hold applies to all responsive records, documents, files and emails( both electronic and hardcopy) that exist. In many companies, the email system is the largest repository of responsive records due to the nature of corporate email. Email messages can include business instructions, legal contracts, financial data, presentations, and unguarded opinions about many business- related activities and is there-fore a major target of discovery in litigation.

Another driver for email system eDiscovery is for internal or corporate governance . corporate governance includes conducting internal investigations for all sorts of reasons, including criminal activity, sexual harassment, enforcing corporate policies, and tracking intellectual property leakage.

1. Internal investigations for criminal activity.
2. Enforcing corporate policies.
3. Intellectual property.

Few Questions to ask to yourself before shopping for an Email Archiving Solution.

its always good to ask questions to improve your knowledge and understanding. Always understand why your company is contemplating purchasing an email archiving solution, this will help you to understand what all things need to be there for email archiving solutions.

First thing to note is that what will be best solution for your company email archiving solution is it Hosted solution or In-House solution.

A hoisted email archiving solution means that all of your company email is stored off-site by another company. This solution usually has lower start-up costs and is a little quicker to implement. Because the service provider supplies all the required hardware and software within their facility. you have no upfront equipment or software costs.

However, your hosted email archiving service costs can also be much higher, especially over the long term and they even can charge as per the space consumed or on the basis of user and can even charge of additional services for accessing the archive and eDiscovery.

Many companies are uncomfortable with trusting another company to store and have access to their corporate communication. You can never be entirely sure who has access to your information after it leaves your building and your servers.

An in-house email archiving solutions refers to the requirement that you purchase the software and hardware and install and manage the solution from within your data centers. the solution and all equipment are owned and managed by you. that means your sensitive corporate data is kept and controlled by your employees in your facilities.

the in-house solution is much more customizable. Because you own and control all aspect of the solution, changes beneficial to your specific requirement are quick to implement and don't require additional services costs. Long term costs can be noticeably lower.

what is scalability : always go for Scalable archive solution.

how long will i be Archiving Email : Understand the retention policy of your Email Archival, so that you can properly manage your email and storage space. this question each organization need to decide by itself, for ex. is there any government regulatory retention requirement, how long access to old email is productive to your employee, what kind of access your HR department need, and finally what does your corporate legal department think ?

Do I need journaling or Log shipping capability. If you need to capture each and every message without interference from your employees, then you need journaling or log shipping.

Journaling : saves a copy of each email and attachment sent or received and stores the email in a separate exchange mailbox called the journal mail box., How ever email within this journal mailbox loses all audit and tracking information.

Log shipping: uses the standard exchange transaction log files to capture all exchange information and has no impact on performance of an email server.

Do i give Employees access to their specific mailbox Archive : In most cases the answer is absolutely, by allowing employees access to their archived mailboxes, you increases employee productivity, It also frees up your IT staff. Those intrepid workers are no longer dealing with requests to recover old emails form backup tapes.

Should I Incorporate PSTs into the Archive : Incorporating employees PSTs into a central archive saves storage space because many email archiving solutions create a single instance of each message. Plus , incorporating all emails including those emails in PSTs greatly simplifies discovery of the email system due to the fact that all email related data is located in the archive, not on employee desktops, network drive, or even backup tapes.

How Does an Email Archiving Solution Change My Exchange Server Backup Requirement.

Having an email archiving solution in place doesn’t necessarily remove your requirement to backup your email servers. Your exchange system has many different types of data files that enable it to run effectively. Most email archiving system capture copies of email messages and attachments, but they don’t capture all the other data resident in the server like the exchange database, calendar data, the contacts database, and tasks and so they can’t act as a backup and restore application. Ask the vendor whether its archiving system captures all the data resident in exchange and whether it provides any email archiving solutions don't capture all the required files to act as a backup and restore application.

How Does an Email Archiving solution change my exchange storage requirement. 

In some cases, your email archival solution can reduce your existing email storage by as much as 80 percent, and it can manage your email storage moving ahead. Now you can manage and control your email storage budget, without sacrificing user productivity.

Keep in mind the email archive can either completely remove email from the email server, or remove and replace it with a small stub file. Both methods will reduce email storage, but the latter potentially introduces thousands of small files that may cause performance problems with outlook as their numbers increase.

Major Benefits of Email Archiving

1. Meet Federal or State Regulatory Requirements.
2. Respond to eDiscovery orders and litigation hold requirement.
3. Increase your exchange server’s performance.
4. Reduce your exchange server backup and recovery times.
5. Reduce storage requirements to lower your overall storage costs.
6. Increase employee productivity.
7. Adopt internal corporate governance process.
8. More effective corporate knowledge management.
9. Lower migration costs.
10. Eliminate PSTs.