With the explosion of data communications in the Internet age, every enterprise must manage the huge volume of messages, files and eMail it generates. A strong data retention and security policy is vital for businesses of all sizes if they are to comply with government regulations and cover legal contingencies. Although most companies recognize this vital necessity, few actually implement a true archiving solution, fully indexing and preserving all eMail as needed, and implementing clear policies for regulatory compliance.
Comprehensive archiving software solutions provide both auditors and regular users with quick search and retrieval of any message stored in an organization’s archive. Regulatory compliance often requires examination of historical messages, documents and data, some of which may no longer be contained on active storage systems. Archiving solutions can capture, retain, and index that information.
Reliance on traditional backup technology for historic data recovery is a widespread practice, which produces unacceptable results. Old backup tapes can be difficult to index and integrate into a proper backup system, and they are often lost or damaged.
WHY ARCHIVE DATA?
One might assume that simply purging old files and eMail correspondence after a certain ‘expiry’ date would, with little expense and trouble, handily resolve compliance issues. The problem, however, is that it is extraordinarily rare for eMail to be truly deleted. Copies exist on both the sending and receiving ends of correspondence, and are easily forwarded or saved elsewhere. Thus true deletion cannot be guaranteed, leaving organizations vulnerable to liability for inadequate compliance archiving.
The reasons behind electronic compliance archiving are much the same as those for hard copy business recordkeeping – ensuring litigation readiness and regulatory compliance, as well as storage mangement for an organization’s internal use. An effective data archiving solution can serve document production requests arising from legal discovery proceedings, eliminating the need to search paper files and other storage media for messages, documents, and data. Archiving solutions can also reconcile duplicate data, further saving costs by reducing the amount of redundant information which must be examined by counsel.
Indexing and archiving functionality can allow marking of documents for review, retention or other processing. Compliance archiving systems allow removal of archaic information from active systems, freeing up system loads and improving performance. Compliance archiving can also provide automatic security updates to a library of virus definitions, thus protecting against possible security vulnerabilities.
