Email has emerged
as a critical tool for business communication, and this has had a
profound impact on archiving. Today, email must be retained for
years, but the sheer glut of email presents serious storage issues
and performance problems for the email server.
Instead, email is regularly indexed and
archived out of the email server to a secondary storage system
for long-term retention. If an email or thread is needed later,
often in response to litigation, the email archive's contents can
be searched to locate relevant data. However, not all email
archiving tools are created equal. For example, an archiving tool
must interface with your email or database system, yet impose few
performance penalties against the applications using the email
archive. It's also important to have retention rules planned ahead
of time and consider the need for index/search capabilities to
address e-discovery demands. Email is constantly growing, so an
email archiving tool must scale well as email storage
increases.
There are many email archiving tools available, each with
particular strengths and a specific focus. For example, tools like
C2C Systems' Archive One are intended for Microsoft Exchange, while
EMC.'s EmailXtender v4.8 supports servers like Exchange, Domino and
Sendmail. Now that you've reviewed the
essential issues involved in any tiered storage
acquisition, this segment will first focus on specific
considerations for email archiving tools. After that, you'll
also find a series of specifications to help make on-the-spot
product comparisons between vendors, including CA, IBM, Mimosa
Systems, Symantec, Zantaz Inc.
Consider the compatibility with current software. Email
archiving tools should interface closely with your existing email
or database system. The issue really lies in the number of
platforms that are compatible and the level of compatibility for
each platform. Smaller organisations with no long-term plans to
change their email platform may get better results with a narrowly
focused email archiving product, while large organisations that
actually use more then one email/database system will likely
benefit from a cross-platform compatible tool. As an example,
MailMeter Archive from Waterford Technologies Inc. supports
Microsoft Exchange, Lotus Domino and Ipswitch IMail along with SQL
Server and Oracle. By comparison, Mimosa NearPoint for Microsoft
Exchange Server is primarily intended for recent versions of
Exchange.
Consider the performance and scalability. Email archiving
tools will invariably have an impact on their related applications.
For example, an email archiving tool for Microsoft Exchange will
impose a performance penalty on Exchange (and users). In addition,
archive performance can decline as the archive platform scales with
more users, more email boxes and larger storage limits for each
user. Email archive administrators are challenged to gauge the
performance impact and scalability of an archive tool and determine
its acceptability to the enterprise. In both cases, lab testing
prior to a purchase can help to uncover unexpected performance or
scaling problems.
Use retention and deletion policies already available.
Email archiving tools can all be configured to accommodate data
retention and deletion, but selecting the best retention rules can
be almost impossible to do on the fly. It is much easier to map an
existing retention policy into an archive tool than to create new
rules as needed, and experts note that the company's current
document retention policy is usually a good starting point.
Ensure adequate storage for the archive. Email archiving
tools will demand storage on another server or storage array.
Nearline SATA-type storage usually offers adequate performance, but
the actual amount of archival storage will depend on the size and
number of email messages. Vendors, like Mimosa, suggest that email
archive storage may demand up to three times the size of the
production Exchange server, but a proliferation of attachments can
demand additional storage resources. Storage requirements will also
vary with corporate retention policies. Long retention policies and
"litigation hold" features will save more email, swelling the total
requirements even further. Most email archiving products include
data reduction technologies that can reduce storage demands, such
as compression or data deduplication. The email archiving vendor
can typically offer a better estimate once they are more familiar
with your mail server environment and compliance needs.
Evaluate specialised features. While virtually all email
archiving tools are adept at data storage and retrieval, it's
important to select a tool with features suited for your specific
needs. For example, an organisation that is particularly concerned
with litigation might select an email archiving tool with extensive
metadata creation and indexing or strong e-discovery search
capabilities. If business continuance or disaster recovery are
priorities, you might opt for an archive tool with remote
replication features.
Consider the effect of software maintenance and licensing
fees. The cost of software maintenance contracts and annual
licensing fees can significantly boost the cost of an email
archiving product, and should always be factored into TCO estimates
prior to a purchase. For example, GFI's MailArchiver for Exchange
carries standard purchase pricing down to $7.88 per mailbox ($7880
for a 1000 mailbox license). However, this only includes 3 months
of upgrades and maintenance -- an annual service agreement would
cost 20% of the purchase price per year.
The email archiving product specifications page in this chapter
covers the following products:
- C2C; Archive One
- EMC Corp.; EmailXtender Archive Edition
- Fortiva Inc.; Fortiva Archive
- GFI Software; MailArchiver software
- IBM; CommonStore software family
- MessageSolution Inc.; Enterprise Email Archiving Suite
4.0
- Mimosa Systems Inc.; NearPoint for Microsoft Exchange
Server
- Open Text Corp.; Email Archiving software
- Quest Software Inc.; Archive Manager
- Sherpa Software; Archive Attender for Microsoft
Exchange
- Symantec Corp.; Enterprise Vault
- Waterford Technologies Inc.; MailMeter Archive
- Zantaz Inc.; Digital Safe
- Zantaz Inc.; Enterprise Archive Solution (EAS)
- Zantaz Inc.; First Archive
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