The 8 Best Practices for Email Archiving
Published 09/25 by Exchange Answers
Government organization and enterprises alike are required to preserve copies of email for future requests both internal and external. This mandate includes compliance with e-discovery laws including the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP)and the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). When organizations are faced with an e-discovery request, they are likely to find it expensive and time consuming to execute retrieval from backup copies. Email archiving is a simple - and cost effective - way for both public and private organizations to assure speedy and complete responses at any time.
I recommend that any organization follow these eight key best practices:
- Archive Everything: A complete records retention policy should assure that all email and related email items (including email content, attachments, calendar items and tasks) are retained. Even lunch appointments may be very important to a future eDiscovery request. Let the investigator determine what's significant.
- Define Policies Early: Establishing retention and deletion policies early on will keep storage from growing to an unmanageable level. A policy that states the reasons for your criteria and how the policy is followed is acceptable in court - but only as long as you can prove that you adhere to it. Without a policy, you'll be stuck with keeping everything forever.
- Be Consistent: Disposition processes should be consistent and documented under the direction of legal counsel. Remember that retaining and disposing (optional) of email in a consistent way takes the burden off IT. Investigators will force you to explain deviations, so keep it simple.
- Enforce Your Policies: Once a written policy exists, you must enforce it with an automated solution to eliminate the "human" component of policy enforcement.
- Freeze - It's the Cops: Don't even think about deleting data arbitrarily during the legal process. The courts will find out, assume you're up to no good, and fine your organization heavily.
- Eliminate PST Files: PST files are created by end users to store their emails and keep them accessible but these "underground archives" are not the best primary storage location for mailbox data. They expose the organization to legal risks and make it hard for you to locate emails when you need them - which usually happens under pressure to meet deadlines. Make PST files read-only and dispose of them prior to the earliest disposition of your policy. Take a copy of existing PST content into the archive to protect it for future access by the creator and the investigator.
- Tape Backup is forDisaster Recovery. Tape backups should not be used as email archives. They capture information only from the point of backup, which does not include items that were deleted by users. They cannot capture activity as it happens. Tape has no intelligence. It has not indexed the email, just copied it, thus tape is not an archive.
- Stubbing: Creating stubs, or shortcuts, is an option that provides tremendous value by reducing back-up time by up to 70% and has little user impact for most organizations.
Review your archiving policies annually, communicate them to end users clearly, and execute them consistently. Email archiving is a journey, not a destination, but the trip doesn't have to be difficult.
Recent SharePoint Questions
- BIS and Exchange
- Exchange 2007 MAPI log
- Forwarding e-mail
- Accessing my work email from home?
- What’s on the horizon?
- What’s been the assessment of Exchange by industry analysts?
- What was added to Exchange Server 2007 that made it different from its predecessors?
- What was added to Exchange Server 2003 that made it different from its predecessors?
- What versions of Exchange are being used today?
- When does it make sense to only provide Web access to Exchange?
more sharepoint questions
More Articles By Exchange Answers
Service Provider Offers Free Upgrades to Exchange 2010
Seattle, WA - Azaleos, a provider of Microsoft Exchange managed services, this week offered its existing customers free migration to Exchange 2010, which is scheduled for general availability beginning in…
Exchange 2010 Adoption Will Peak In Two Years, Survey Says
Waltham, MA - Metalogix Software, a provider of email archiving solutions for Microsoft Exchange installations, conducted a survey this summer suggesting that adoption of Exchange 2010, anticipated for general availability…
More Articles Under "Featured"
The 8 Best Practices for Email Archiving
Government organization and enterprises alike are required to preserve copies of email for future requests both internal and external. This mandate includes compliance with e-discovery laws including the Read more
Service Provider Offers Free Upgrades to Exchange 2010
Seattle, WA - Azaleos, a provider of Microsoft Exchange managed services, this week offered its existing customers free migration to Exchange 2010, which is scheduled for general availability beginning in…
Exchange 2010 Adoption Will Peak In Two Years, Survey Says
Waltham, MA - Metalogix Software, a provider of email archiving solutions for Microsoft Exchange installations, conducted a survey this summer suggesting that adoption of Exchange 2010, anticipated for general availability…
Most Viewed Content
- Uncovering the new RPC Client Access Service in Exchange 2010…
- Exchange ActiveSync and iPhone OS 3.1
- AppRiver Exchange Hosting - Voted MSExchange.org Readers Choice Award Winner…
- Address Lists in Exchange 2007 (Part 4)
- SmarterTools and Microsoft Patent Licensing Agreement Extends Exchange ActiveSync Reach…
