E-mail Archiving Where it Belongs - In the Storage Infrastructure

The natural evolution of what used to be called "network applications" is that, once it reaches a certain level of maturity, an application morphs into the infrastructure. Network routing for example used to be a separate network application on servers running the network operating system (NOS). But CISCO changed that when it introduced new easy-to-install and easy-to-maintain routers. From that point on, network routing and switching were no longer applications but a part of the network . In the early days of the LAN, file management and print services were also separate applications and they too have long since sunk into the infrastructure.

Because of the explosive growth of data and the need for longer-term retention over the past decade, storage management has been, and continues to be, one of the leading areas of IT corporate spending. To avoid the proliferation of independent storage silos, a properly deployed storage infrastructure should manage all data, independent of the application that created it.

To the corporate storage system, e-mail data should be just like any other data. Accordingly, the storage infrastructure should be capable of managing e-mail data without the need for special software applications. In other words, storing e-mail data should be infrastructure functionality and not a business application.

We're beginning to see the decades old evolutionary trend of applications morphing into the infrastructure now being applied to e-mail content. At last week's CeBit for example, QStar Technologies announced the capability of its general purpose SntryStr storage appliance to manage e-mail messages in the same way it manages other corporate data. What QStar calls "SntryML" (pronounced sentry mail) is effectively e-mail archiving functionality embedded within their storage appliance. Bravo QStar!

E-mail Archiving Isn't Just About Compliance - Users Like it Too!

The enormous benefit that e-mail archiving can provide to users is unfortunately often overshadowed by the high-brow mumble-jumble of regulatory compliance.

The burden of insufficient or inaccessible e-mail storage usually weighs heavily on the shoulders of the user. Because storage on a mail-server should be maintained below a certain level for it to operate smoothly, most organizations impose mailbox size limits on their users. Although mail servers are usually backed up regularly, users have learned that, when the only available copy of an e-mail message is on a backup tape, you can pretty much forget about it.

Cleaning out your inbox is like cleaning out your garage. If you discard it today, you will probably need it tomorrow. As a result, users are as reluctant to throw out old e-mails as I am to throw out old sports equipment.

Users like a good corporate e-mail archiving system because it gives them quick and easy access to any e-mail message, new ones as well as those that are years old. This means that they never again have to wrestle with the decision of what is worth keeping and what can be deleted. Mail can be deleted at will, with the confidence that a message can be retrieved if, and most importantly when, it's required. It's like hiring someone with a truck to haul away all the stuff from your garage, but being available to bring any of it back to you when you need it.

E-mail users no longer have to take the time to file away those old messages into PSTs. But best of all, with an e-mail archiving system deployed, users will never again have to get one of those irrating phone calls from IT telling them to delete messages from their mailbox immediately....or else.