Email Archival Solution: Protect Your Information

Email Archiving

Email archiving is the process of directly capturing emails when they are being sent or received from the client. These mails can be saved on the hard disks to be used for reference at a later date, instead of having online access of the same every time. Most companies try to limit the amount of data that can be stored in the form of emails. Depending on the job profile, limits are differently allotted to employees. Storage in the form of PST files increase chances of data loss or corruption on hard disks. With the help of an email archival solution, it is possible to access mails on mobile devices and also while being offline. It must be noted that mails can be lost when one forgets to create a back up, but an archive search tool can help in locating the same. If deleted by mistake, it would still be available in the archived folders. Archives are usually set for deletion only after a certain period of time.

Advantages of choosing email archiving

A reputed email hosting service can provide archival solutions if asked for. Header information such as about the sender, receiver and message contents is stored by the email archival solution. Certain advanced versions of these solutions can even search for data in attachments, which would save a lot of time for any business. In some companies, access to archives is only available with account administrators, while others allow employees to go through complete mail accounts. Email archiving can also prevent mails from becoming viral. If there is some derogatory information about employees that is to be conveyed to a particular manager, then archiving would prevent it from being leaked on sources such as social networking sites. Some archiving solution providers can store all mails within a tamper proof space, so that no alterations can be made.

How to select the right email hosting service

For selecting the necessary email hosting service, company management and the I.T. Department need to keep the requirements of a company in mind. For example, businesses which require litigation-oriented information would need to address e-discovery and legal holds. Companies addressing performance management would give importance to the end-user experience. As per statistics, litigation-related e-discovery makes the greatest use of archives. Some companies would look for on-site hosting while others would choose local hosting, depending on the nature of information being shared. One way of using emails could be transitory, where communication constantly takes place between different entities, while the other could be repository, which would need storage space. Therefore, one can say that email archiving helps in preventing confidential information from being shared with an inappropriate party. The I.T. department can always maintain track of different mails being sent, which would protect a company's reputation in the long run.