IBM says its new
email archivingappliance is so easy to install that small and
medium-size businesses can have it up and running in less than a
day.
IBM's DB2 CommonStore Email Archiving Solution is an integrated
hardware and software product that works with existing email
servers. It offloads messages and attachments and stores them in an
archive for long-term access.
IBM says the solution helps SMBs store and quickly retrieve email
messages to satisfy compliance audit reviews and legal discovery
orders. By moving older messages off the email server, the solution
also improves email system performance.
The solution is powered by an IBM BladeCenter Server with an AMD
Opteron processor. CommonStore supports Lotus Notes and Microsoft
Exchange. It also comes preloaded with IBM DB2 Content Manager,
Tivoli Storage Manager and WebSphere Application Server.
Susan Eustis, analyst and president of WinterGreen Research Inc.
in Lexington, Mass., said CommonStore is ideal for SMBs. She said
it gives IBM a "huge edge" in the SMB market for email
archiving.
"The research I do, which is calling, interviewing and working
with the SMB market -- the primary goal is to have a piece of
hardware or software that [SMBs] can get going quickly because they
typically don't have a dedicated IT department. They're busy.
Everyone wears 10 hats. They don't have time to figure out what's
wrong if it doesn't work."
Amy Wohl, President of Wohl Associates in Narberth, Pa., said
the ability to get the appliance up and running quickly is always a
major selling point in the SMB market. She added that CommonStore
will be sold to SMBs through IBM's partners and resellers, who
usually offer professional technical assistance if needed.
Wohl said most email systems can be configured to archive
messages, but setting up and maintaining an email archiving process
requires time and expertise that most SMBs lack. CommonStore comes
prepackaged, pretested and ready to use, Wohl said.
"It doesn't need to know much about your email system that it
can't find out on its own," Wohl said. "You need to tell it where
your email server is and where it can find the user directory."
Eustis said CommonStore will appeal to SMBs in the banking,
finance and healthcare industries. But any small business that uses
email will find it valuable, she said.
Wohl said any company in which having long-term access to email
messages might become a business issue can use this appliance. With
CommonStore, SMBs can also easily set a policy to dispose of
archived messages when the company is no long legally required to
retain them.
"If you're in the business of providing goods and services and
you might be subject to litigation based on your company's past
history, then you want to be in a position to be able to respond to
legal requests [for email]," Wohl said.
Wohl said CommonStore could also allow SMBs to mine their email
for information that could be useful for future business, such as
tracking feedback that customer service representatives receive
from customers.
Eustis said CommonStore would compete indirectly with software
solutions such as Cupertino, Calif.-based Symantec Corp.'s Mail
Security and hosted email providers such as Fortiva Inc. in
Norwalk, Conn.
"But these are more about email security and availability,"
Eustis said. "You can do archiving, but you don't have some of the
sophisticated functionality that the IBM [appliance] does."
Let us know what you think about the story; email:
Shamus McGillicuddy,
News Writer