Choosing the right email archiving software
This is my third article (see links at end) this calendar year about email archiving solutions for small and medium sized businesses. If you own or administer a business that uses email as an important tool for doing business, these articles will be of high importance to you and your IT staff. Today's article is about choosing the right email archiving software.
In today's business environment, email communication has become an essential tool, especially for small and medium-sized businesses. Laws and regulations related to the retention of email and other types of digital communication have increased, putting most businesses in a tough spot in which to balance their business needs and complying with on-going regulatory requirements. In addition, most small and medium-sized businesses do not have a robust IT department so having to worry about email storage issues, quota limits, eDiscovery laws, and other technical issues related to email takes time away from growing and expanding the business.
Email archiving can help with most of these issues if the right solution is used. As with any type of software, one size does not fit all. Be aware of your business IT environment and your business needs before searching for any email archiving solution.
Here are the features to look out for when searching for the right email archiving solution:
- The ability to archive one or more databases: I would not want the archiving solution to archive emails to the mail server. This can cause performance issues and cause quota limit issues with the email server. There is no point in implementing something to solve one problem and to then cause another.
- Users should have offline access to archived emails: Having a company's email archived but not easily accessible by users is a major drawback, and that is why a solid email archiving solution will provide access to email either through the email client or through web access. Users want to be able to access their archives if they are on the road, they have problems with their email client or only have basic web access. Providing offline access ensures continuity for the company and puts minds at rest that all their email, old or new is available with a few keystrokes.
- Solve the issue with PST files: This type of offline access feature is usually a much better solution than using PST files which are difficult to manage and which put your email at risk as they can be lost once the PST is corrupted. Once you deploy an email archiving solution within the organization, you automatically eliminate the need to use PSTs - meaning goodbye to the headache of having to dig through a store of PSTs manually, goodbye to the risk of losing emails, goodbye the need to do PST backups; and hello to automatic email archiving in a central archive accessible to all which saves your admins priceless time, and the organization money.
Most email archiving solutions come with a variety of features. The ones mentioned here are only the highlights of such software. I would evaluate all email archiving solutions based, at least, on their ability to archive to a database and to allow users both online and offline access to their email archive.
This guest post was provided by Sean McCreary on behalf of GFI Software Ltd. GFI is a leading software developer that provides a single source for network administrators to address their network security, content security and messaging needs. More information: GFI email archiving.
This is the third article about email archiving solutions, posted on this blog. See these previous articles for some background information:
- How to deploy an email archiving solution within your organization
- Mail archiving: Easing the load on your mail server - and yourself!
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