Every company has to deal with large amounts of data on a daily basis. Before computers became the norm, imagine the trouble of keeping stacks of papers and documents in hundreds of filing cabinets. The idea of poring through these files manually to find an important document is just unimaginable. Thanks to computers, data is now converted into bits and bytes stored in servers.
Nevertheless, computer data also increases and as information piles up, you’ll need a larger storage space. Archiving helps facilitate an efficient method of data storage and recovery, but most organizations today are still not familiar with the idea.
What is email archiving?
Archiving email communications mean moving historical information for long-term storage. Some companies today have a form of email archiving methods in place, although limited in scope. Companies that already migrated to the cloud like Azure services, already benefit from email archiving solutions.
Compared with data accessed frequently, archived data is retained for an extended period and retrieved only when needed. As such, what’s most important when archiving information is the capacity and resiliency of the system. The archiving methods should ideally have a cataloguing method that allows for quick data retrieval.
How do you know that email archiving solutions in place are effective?
Since companies today deal with large amounts of data, an email archiving solution should have the following features:
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Workflows that support company policies. If you want to streamline data management, the email archiving solution must be ready to adopt policies designed for capturing, migrating, verifying, and retrieving data.
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Efficient data migration. No company is willing to wait around for information to be migrated successfully. The primary goal of moving information to the cloud is to facilitate movement, as well as retrieval quickly.
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Must offer tools for analysis and learning. Every company must use stored data to learn. Through email archiving, data analyzed can offer insights about access patterns, and activity so that the company better understands how stored information gets used.
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Data protection. Email archiving solutions must provide data security and stability so that there is no need to backup data separately.
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Management access. Archived information must have separate management access and permissions.
An archiving solution with these features will eventually help a company save money. Furthermore, an email archiving service supported through the cloud is a valuable tool for any organization. The earlier a company begins to archive historical information, the fewer the chances of losing data which may be pertinent down the line.
It is not uncommon to hear about certain organizations that suffered the inconvenience of losing data because of a lack of an effective archiving solution. Besides, relying on primary storage or upsizing the company servers is not always a feasible and cost-effective option.
The reality is, data will continue to accumulate, and without an archiving solution in place, a company may suffer the consequences of historical data lost. In some instances when you do retain data in primary storage, lack of proper archiving also means there is difficulty in access and retrieval which is another challenge altogether.
