Considerations for Enterprises that Need to Archive Emails

Need to Archive Emails? This post will walk you through it...

Things that are said through email are not necessarily intellectual or even interesting, but they do represent what was in your brain, and that text is copyrighted to you. In fact, at some point, you may need it again. Thanks to the best email archiving solutions, you will be able to find it again, even years later.

Through these solutions, you are also being email compliant, which is very important if you are a business. You can quickly search and retrieve any email that was sent or received. For businesses, this is vital because they have to meet discovery requests as well, which means they have to find emails and be able to prove that they haven’t been tempered with as well.

A key problem is that email has now turned into big data. It is quite common for someone to open up their email program to 60 unread messages. Hence, it is vital that there is a solution that has a lot of storage space as well.

Why Is an Email Archiving Strategy Required?

Under federal regulations, emails have to be retained. Not just that but, in order to remain compliant, these emails have to be secured for a certain period of time as well. This is a legality, and you cannot simply print and email a feed. If you do not keep your communications stored in the right way, you also run the risk of incurring very serious penalties. While these will be directed at a specific employee, the reality is also that the entire business will suffer from that.

There are some other risks to be aware of, including:

  • Fines and criminal charges for breaching federal regulations.

  • Having legal actions taking out against you an having to settle those because compliance after the fact would be far more expensive.

  • Losing cases that cannot be settled because you have effectively broken the law.

  • Loss of your intellectual property.

The greatest offense is to destroy emails and other documents, particularly if those documents said things about you or your organization. If they are destroyed, this is classed as obstruction of justice. Furthermore, if you are incapable of providing documents, you can be assumed to be guilty. So what can you do to avoid this?

Features of Email Data Archiving

Of key importance is that your archiving solution is quick and accurate. Once you can find the information is required at a moment’s notice, you will be compliant and should have no difficulties in resolving any disputes or request for information. Do make sure you store online, so that you can always access the necessary information.

Choosing an Archiving Solution

  1. Is the solution cost effective? On-site options tend to be the most expensive, because you are responsible for the hardware, software, update, and support.

  2. Is the solution reliable? The archive server has to be completely stable at all times, as well as being protected from natural disasters and other such issues.