Creating a safe, secure resource for email archiving means being able to track and control every facet of cloud storage associated with this process. That can get difficult when personnel are using cloud gateways to access corporate email tools from home or on personal mobile devices, trends that are becoming increasingly commonplace among organizations of all kinds. While coming up with more rigorous data usage protocols is helpful, understanding what devices staff members like to use for email access can help businesses better anticipate email archiving needs.
A study by Opinion Matters showed that almost 75 percent of all personnel use their cloud access to look at emails on the weekends, and more than half admit to checking email while on vacation, whether through domestic or international channels. The variety of endpoints and access channels being utilized to facilitate these plethora of employee outlets can produce significant challenges for companies trying to maintain continuity and compliance in their email archive suites. The trouble is that, according to Net Security Online, personnel are using their business email tools more often than any other form of communication, and that kind of heavy reliance could promote file loss if companies aren't prepared to handle all the methods staff use to access email assets.
Benefits of business archives
Business 2 Community added that instituting email archiving solutions can help cut down on threats and promote better cloud control. With employees requesting access to email utilities from dozens of different sites and through a multitude of devices, many of which are bound to be rogue or unlicensed for enterprise use, it can be hard to track every file created and support the integrity of connections when so many are in use simultaneously. An automated archive tool will catch every document as it's being created, no matter what kind of tool is being used for the process, and this information will be saved to a secure storage facility even without the user's knowledge. Such a system promotes much better transparency and governance in corporate operations.
What's more, building an email archiving solution will help cut down on latency, Business 2 Community added. With such a large percentage of employees frequently using cloud storage tools for email while out of the office, it could create a slowdown for corporate servers. Instituting email archives for message servers will relieve strain on these devices, allowing for better overall communication.
As the amount of information that businesses need to store, manage and curate continues to grow, organizations are coming to understand how vital email archiving in the cloud truly is. With more firms making use of cloud email tools than any other options, it's easy to log all these files into a cloud storage resource for continuity and compliance, but firms need to do more than simply funnel their assets away into digitized data silos. In order to ensure swift and accurate eDiscovery and audit responses, businesses must be more attentive when it comes to tracking and organizing email archiving solutions in the cloud.
Protecting important assets
Email resources are considered to be evidence in legal cases around the world. According to InformationWeek, businesses are required to hang on to these documents for an extended period of time in case the data contained in these files becomes pertinent to an inquiry or audit. Using long-term email archiving storage in the cloud is therefore an ideal solution, since businesses won't have to pay more to maintain physical data centers that are only responsible for housing very old files and in large volumes.
What's more, the source stated that discovery and recovery is far easier in a computerized landscape, rather than relying on hardware architecture. Since many firms operate on mixed media clients, wherein data is emailed and stored separately from the files that were originally attached to these documents, it can be hard to recover the essential details of these records without a moderate to extreme degree of difficulty. Using an email archiving solution will ensure that these files are bundled together appropriately, making the recovery process supremely easier as compared to legacy storage and management solutions.
Avoiding extra expenses
Overall, failing to comply with state and federal guidelines for email archive options can preset a variety of expenses to businesses. Apart from the cost incurred by having to spend an excessive amount of time and effort retrieving individual files or attachments, exhibiting a lack of internal compliance can trigger individual fines on its own. Businesses are meant to adhere to federal records standards in order to avoid messy or prolonged investigations, so if entities express email archiving features that fail to meet eDiscovery guidelines, entities could be facing a separate round of costly penalties. Avoiding this potentiality means paying attention to email archiving requirements and doing more with cloud storage to meet these demands.
In the past, important documents were historically sent in physical form. A contract would be mailed to the recipient, which allowed companies to preserve physical copies of all these important documents for their records. Later, files were sent over fax - again allowing businesses to hold on to contracts, invoices and other important papers.
In today's business environment, though, this is no longer the case. The vast majority of business documents are sent over email. In nearly every way, this is better for businesses - it drastically slashes postage budgets, eliminates the need for a bulky fax machine and allows companies to jettison those hulking file cabinets where they used to cram copies of all their documents.
Clearly, the mass migration to email is a huge boon for most businesses. However, it is not without its drawbacks.
Here are three things you should know about relying on email for the bulk of your business communications.
Access
Many companies are accustomed to the old way of doing things - collecting documents and storing them physically in an office. Because of this, they have become acclimated to this system (however inefficient it is) and often find it hard to modernize.
Luckily, email archiving can make this transition incredibly smooth. An intuitive cloud storage system allows companies to access all their emails with ease. Instead of rifling through dozens of identical manila folders, workers can search their records, call up specific conversations and create easy-to-access folders of pertinent information.
Security
The explosion of emails has also had repercussions on the security front. Because important documents like contracts and legal notices are now often sent digitally, it means that it can be harder for companies to keep careful track of these files. Where once, papers were kept in locked offices, they are now at risk of being accessed, stolen or reproduced by digital marauders.
Of course, this situation can be worrisome for many executives. However, modern technology helps these workers sleep easy at night by assuring them that the utmost security is always a priority, according to Information Week. Password-protected accounts and remote security measures are just some of the ways that cloud archiving can help your company limit the chance of a breach.
Reliability
Finally, relying primarily on email for business communications is a great way to improve the reliability and durability of your documents. Physical documents are prey to all the externalities of anything with a physical form: floods, fires and more. However, digitally stored documents will always be there for you. With email archiving, you can ensure that you always have a copy of the file you need, wherever you are.
Companies are constantly on the lookout for tools that can help them do more and save money. Resources that help them achieve these goals have been found more often than not in the cloud these days. Companies are acquiring as-needed functions from specific applications for a certain amount of time without making any long-term commitments like firms have to with hardware procuration. This lets businesses become more flexible and grants them a range of capabilities they historically haven't been able to access before.
Among these enhanced functions is the option to store and manage email archives. The sheer volume of data personnel generate on a daily basis is staggering when considering the entire block of it at once, and these cumbersome amounts are what can create latency and loss in traditional archive tools. A cloud email archiving option is capable of batching and managing these uploads in a revolving-door scenario, Cult of Mac reported. This means that instead of having to replicate every email as soon as it hits an inbox or is sent out to a recipient, the cloud app will cache a customer-determined amount of messages and then ship all of them simultaneously to the remote storage host.
Finding more silver linings
Legacy software can be controlled in much the same way, but the connection is still what's most likely to hold up processing speeds and workflow. With many organizations already operating cloud-based email solutions, relying on archive systems that occupy the same digital space makes the transmittal far more fluid, resulting in less potential for downtime or data loss.
The ability for online tools to handle these kinds of sensitive and important matters has made them far more popular than physical assets in many companies, Business 2 Community stated. The source wrote that cloud email archiving tools are considered more desirable in the corporate world these days not only for their ease of access and cost-efficiency. They also make these files easier to review in the future, allowing for analytics and intelligence-gathering initiatives that let firms gain money by implementing cloud storage in the form of better financial and performance forecasts.
Taking advantage of all that the cloud has to offer is simple when firms launch comprehensive digital storage and management tools. Email archiving in the cloud makes these files safer, easier to access and far less costly to control than legacy options.
More businesses are moving to cloud email archiving options for their security, scalability and stability. Federal guidelines are requiring an increasing number of industries to adopt these kinds of infrastructure, as even government offices and agencies take on these kinds of computing guidelines. The more standardized these options become, the more possible it becomes to create comprehensive public records of information that's been stored with email archiving that are more historical, which fosters even deeper levels of usefulness for these kinds of clouds resources.
ZDNet wrote that this kind of email management is already underway at the George W. Bush Presidential Center. The library and museum facility recently opened in Texas, featuring an extensive archive of presidential information. In honor of the rise of major digital infrastructure during his presidency, though, the former president's library will be the site of an expansive email archive endeavor that sheds light on more than 200 million messages sent, received and edited during his tenure.
New management of old data
The presence of the email archiving solution acknowledges not only the historical value of these messages, but also serves to acknowledge the Presidential Records Act (PRA). This mandate requires that all files considered the private property of a president become a matter of public record once that official leaves office. As much of former president Bush's correspondence was carried out by email, this left archivists in a position where they had to decide how best to handle the plethora of information generated during his eight years in office.
In the old days, complying with the PRA would have meant printing, labeling, cataloging and storing every single last message in a cumbersome and highly inefficient physical format. Instead, as ZDNet reported, the cloud email archiving solution lets personnel easily go through and consolidate these vital records. What's more, placing them in this kind of cloud format will make it easy for both casual and intellectual review at any time - as a cloud deployment, the library will have the option of making this archive accessible through the public cloud.
Even when all of the president's emails have been archived, there will still be records from former vice president Dick Cheney to deal with. Since these are also considered public information under the PRA, archivists will need to find ways of integrating these two sets of extensive documentation. Utilizing cloud email archiving options will make this process much easier.
Businesses must hang on to their records for a certain period of time in order to maintain federal compliance. Different types of files have varied needs in terms of longevity, but it's up to each organization to ensure that specific kinds of information are being properly curated, managed and stored. Cloud email archiving solutions make this entire process easier to control, since eDiscovery inquests and other legal inquiries can put a records system through its paces.
Information technology has been evolving dramatically over the last decade, and with so much infrastructure and daily activity currently centered on cloud resources, it makes sense for many businesses to create comprehensive strategies that utilize a single framework. As InformationWeek stated, this can help companies maintain better oversight of their various documents and file types, especially with ever-changing email archiving demands.
Burgeoning email issues
Compared to other kinds of records an organization may need to deal with, the sheer volume of incoming data in email format could cripple some data storage resources. The Radicati Group wrote that message volumes have been growing every year, but by 2015, every employee will be handling roughly 125 emails per day. Of these, about one-tenth will be spam. This presents a unique challenge to document management systems, since spam messages shouldn't be maintained and must be sorted out of long term storage structures to avoid curating useless documentation. Cloud email archiving systems can handle such roadblocks with ease, as compared with other kinds of legacy solutions, making it an ideal time and money saver.
Reducing spam in the archive will also help when eDiscovery inquiries are submitted to a business. Instead of having to fish through a deep archive that's littered with worthless messages that could confuse or slow down file tracking tools, a cloud email archiving solution with active curation can easily get rid of unnecessary documents automatically.
InformationWeek stated that having a comprehensive email archiving solution in the cloud also helps keep these messages in their original formats. This includes bundling original attachments, forwarding chains and other information associated with the initial documents. Such thorough retrieval is essential when responding to an eDiscovery request, and cloud email archiving can deliver on this demand much more readily and completely than older archive tools. This makes it a valuable asset for companies that choose to implement such tools in their data infrastructures.
There are a number of professions that require high reliance on written text, correspondence and communication. In order to maintain all these messages, these workers need a way to ensure that they can retain a thorough record of every contact they've made over the years, since they could have to reference any of these resources at any time. In light of that fact, the flexibility of email archiving in the cloud has made it a popular resource in job fields like writing and journalism.
The Poynter Institute discussed how journalists, especially, have come to rely on email archive options, as their requirement to remain highly mobile and yet maintain full and fluid records requires that they have file management options that can meet their unique lifestyles. The source pointed out that there are a variety of resources that journalists regularly need to create and maintain, many of which are stored as email attachments or other kinds of mixed media. In order to keep all the assorted file types matched with their respective messages, they need advanced cloud email archiving solutions, which can facilitate retrieval without having to maintain a cumbersome, expensive and less effective solid state data resource.
Poynter looked at some of the current email archiving tools that professionals prefer to use. These tools often support a broad array of multimedia extensions, letting journalists create and store essential data with their associated emails. Privacy and security options are strongly preferred, as not all people are familiar with the best tools, encryption and safety measures they should be using that help them understand these options.
Integrating email archives and everyday work
One of the emerging trends in cloud email archiving options is integration with social media and other dashboard resources. For those who use an integrated infrastructure service as part of daily work operations or as a stand-alone tool to facilitate better workflow flexibility. Having the ability to merge different programs into a single cloud portal makes it easier to optimize.
With social media becoming such a prevalent insight and analytics outlet, being able to link social resources with email archiving can give personnel a better idea of how well their efforts are paying off or where they should be applying themselves more. This is essential when determining the direction of current investigations, something that journalists must be mindful of in order to ensure their work is still in line with public expectations. As ZDNet wrote, businesses and privately employed individuals, such as journalists, need to be able to keep their options and storage privileges flexible. Using email archiving options will ensure that information is always available and easy to work with, facilitating better work performance.
There are a wide variety of threats, risks and dangers that can present themselves to digital information. Even files kept in physical data centers can encounter these kinds of issues, wherein outside entities or natural disasters can cause outages that lead to significant problems or the total loss of important documents. In an always-on infrastructure like the cloud, though, some people worry that digital files are more prone to attack, but there are also superior ways of protecting files stored in this capacity than in legacy outlets.
Promoting better security is essential to compliance. In cases where companies aren't keeping their files under adequate control, loss and theft can result in significant fines and other complications for the businesses responsible. As Tapscape stated, this makes cloud email archiving even more essential. As files continually travel in and out of the organization, firms need to ensure that they have a way of tracking all of these changes, safeguarding original copies and managing the information associated with every file. In cases where these rigorous requirements are not being met, it's easy for a single record to become lost. By the time administrators notice, it may be too late to recover the missing resource. That's why automated email archiving features have driven so many organizations to rely on cloud-based features like these.
Saving time and money
What's more, Tapscape pointed out that email archiving is a far more cost-effective solution than legacy solutions. Adopting a tool that constantly manages incoming and outgoing documents, filters spam and automatically backs up information to a cloud storage facility, personnel can handle other matters and check on the archive when needed. It also makes it difficult for a document to become misplaced. With strong enough filters, cloud email archiving even detects spam and malware contained within email resources, creating an even more secure and compliant infrastructure.
Business 2 Community wrote that cloud email archiving presents companies with a way to continually and automatically move files from live resources to long-term management vaults. This process happens continually throughout the day without impeding workflow or requiring direct personnel oversight. Such automated processing can be programmed to handle certain kinds of documents in various ways, identify spam and keep track of potential threats. These resources also often incorporate encryption policies, meaning that if any third party should manage to intercept a document, they won't be able to read the information it contains.
There are a number of industries increasing their reliance on cloud resources in order to increase their collaboration and communication capabilities. As they do so, they also need more cloud storage resources in order to ensure the information they create in the digital environment is also saved there. This gives these files more flexibility and makes it easier for firms to create analytics in this capacity.
These features are much of the reason why colleges and universities are moving more aggressively toward cloud email archiving options. Business 2 Community wrote that schools are already implementing more cloud appliances due to the sheer volume of data they process and create every day. With so many people constantly accessing the internet to conduct research, learn about a wide variety of topics and communicate on social networks, the need to keep all these files fluid, yet secure is increasingly important.
Since students and faculty are already operating in this cloud capacity, it makes sense to create comprehensive file options that make the system more cost-effective. As Business 2 Community stated, more hybrid options are becoming available to help save money and makegreater use of schools' infrastructure without limiting their connectivity.
Remaining continuously compliant in the cloud
With schools already in the cloud, it makes sense that they would want to control these assets in that environment as well. The source stated that enhanced sharing capabilities has made it ideal for higher education organizations to implement cloud email archiving, since these messages are already created, shared and temporarily maintained by public servers in many cases. Internal email clients operated by higher education institutions however are able to archive communications for further review and analytics generation by the owning school. This can facilitate future research and continuity protection should anything happen to a college or university's other data solutions.
The increasing amount of online threats has created an environment where schools are required to exert better control of their email archiving options. Such solutions ensure that no matter what should happen to an email client, higher education facilities will be able to protect and recall these sensitive files if necessary. It protects the establishment from breaches or losses similar to other document types and, according to Dell, is mandatory to keep up with federal records compliance. Therefore, school administrators are increasingly turning to cloud email archiving tools to ensure the safety and fluidity of these files.
Businesses have a lot of emails they need to manage. Many important messages are created, transferred, forwarded and referenced on a regular basis, which makes it essential that they take good care of these correspondences. Interactive and collaborative cloud email archive options are therefore becoming more popular, as they allow for better review processes and future retrieval.
Traditional archive options require storing transmissions in cumbersome, slow tapes or hard disk options. These resources have such depth that delving into their resources can take a long time to locate exactly the files that personnel need. In some cases, if compliance or file-tracking software is insufficient, or older messages are inappropriately cataloged, these messages could be lost entirely.
In light of these difficulties, cloud email archiving has taken over where traditional storage solutions have left off in the past. ITWeb wrote that companies want options that create more accessible, accurate resources that offer always-on retrieval and fluid function. Data management specialist Grant Hodgkinson said that these solutions facilitate a broader range of function and usability for corporations than any legacy options could provide.
The interactive archive is a technology platform that fulfills two important business objectives," Hodgkinson told the source. "Firstly, it archives content and data relevant to the organization so that it can be discovered for compliance purposes later. Secondly, it is accessible to knowledge workers, generally making them more productive."
Keeping up with the data times
What's more, the mounting volume of data companies need to deal with will continually increase issues that organizations face when storing large amounts of information. A study by IDC showed that annual growth rates for total corporate file loads has been going up about 4 percent each year between 2010 and 2012. That amount is expected to escalate to 7 percent or more in coming years, affecting email archiving solutions that aren't prepared to scale up or down when businesses need to.
Companies are able to create more flexible, accessible storage solutions in the cloud, eWeek stated. Due to that fact, the increase in cloud email archiving tools will likely grow as more businesses realize they need to be able to make meaningful use of all their archived information. Business intelligence and analytics require that file solutions stay fluid, as do regular review requirements by personnel and compliance guidelines. With that in mind, business leaders may find that implementing cloud email archiving options can meet all these needs in a constantly-changing data landscape.