With the expectation that the market for enterprise email archiving
will expand in 2013 by over double the market just four years ago, with
continued expansion in following years, the urgency for small business
email archiving, just to remain competitive, will also grow.
However, small business represents challenges that
may not be answered adequately by providers such as IBM Domino (now
incorporated into IBM Notes) and Microsoft Exchange that are geared for
large enterprise installations.
Email archiving is a separate
application that is integrated with email servers such as those
mentioned above, but there are other providers of servers and client
email archive applications geared to the needs and budgets of small
business. The providers of small business email archiving still offer
real time access to archived files and security measures that will
protect the archive from unqualified access or manipulation.
There are several reasons why an email archive application makes sense
for even the smallest of businesses with just a few employees who use
business email.
As noted above, there is protection of the data
that goes above and beyond the simple storage of historic data on the
company’s main operational server(s). If that data is corrupted by
innocent or malicious invasion, the data may be useless with potentially
dire consequences.
The sheer volume of data in the archive will
only increase over time, even with the use of data deduplication, which
eliminates redundant data. Without a separate client-server to archive
email data, the drain on the main server(s) with ever-increasing email
data will slow the efficiency of every other real-time operation
creating load on the server(s).
For purposes of regulatory and legal considerations, a non-corruptible
data archive is essential to protect the integrity of the archive.
Ordinary storage on the main server(s) may still allow the modification
of email data, thereby destroying the chain of evidence necessary for
acceptance by regulation or litigation demands.
There are
basically three available small business solutions for data archiving.
The simplest is either an onsite or offsite solution still managed
internally by the small business. If this option is chosen, for purposes
of contingency planning for a possible natural or man-made disaster,
offsite archiving may be the best choice for all data backup and
storage, not just email data.
Another option is to employ a
third party to manage the responsibility of email archiving. This
functions much like an internal but offsite solution and has all the
benefits of an offsite solution without the hassle of managing the
archive by internal resources.
A third solution is a cloud-based
option, that is, an internet service provider (ISP) who will manage the
storage and retrieval to and from the email archive, allowing access to
specified company employees by login. Compared to the other two
solutions, this may be the most economical to engage.