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Since 1998

Archiving Data Issues...

Archiving data is an important consideration when managing your information systems, however archiving itself can present a slew of other problems.  The additional storage space required to archive every piece of data in your environment can be staggering, moreover, once the data has been archived it becomes more difficult for users to gain access to it.

So what's the solution?

Although archiving is essential, is it really necessary to archive the same data over and over and over again?  The cost involved in having your online and archive storage will only increase.  According to one ZDNet's article "With storage growing more than 60 to 80 percent compounded annually through 2005/06, 4 TB systems in 2002 will grow to 16 TB-23 TB systems by 2005.", the cost is growing.  So how do you get around this?  Start with one simple step - Stop archiving duplicate data!

Where do I have duplicate data?  E-mail of course!

Summed up nicely by ZDNet, "E-mail has recently become a favorite candidate for archive technology. Although overall e-mail data growth is lower than overall data growth (40 percent CAGR vs. 60 to 80 percent CAGR), e-mail is more an easily targeted application than others. We all "know" that users keep obsolete data and inappropriate files, and are generally pack rats. Although there is some truth to this anecdote, ITOs must be cautious about turning a financial decision into a moral crusade for disk cleanup. For example, ITOs may set a quota on email file sizes of, say, 500 MB. At current disk prices, this consumes $10-$15 of disk space. Doubling the user space would obviously double this cost. However, offline archival tools may cost even more. Quota tools (e.g., Precise StorageCentral) can be useful, but should target abusers--not simple pack rats." (ZDNet Report).

So how do I reduce the reliance on quotas and archiving?

User's sent items will contain files that already exist somewhere either locally or on the network.  (After all, the attachments had to come from somewhere.)  Reducing copies of files in your user's sent items is one of the fastest ways to reduce user's mailbox sizes and also reduce your backup and archiving space requirements not to mention time.  E-mail Management Server can easily be set to run on user's mailboxes and delete those attachments out of a user's sent items, while leaving reference to the fact that the attachment (file) was originally sent in the e-mail.  You may even want to set up a corporate policy whereby attachments in user's sent items are automatically deleted after 30, 60 or 90 days.

Once you have completed the clean up, you can use E-mail Management Server to start addressing inbound attachments with ease.  You'll soon see that keeping e-mail for years in your mailbox or PST is no longer an issue.

We encourage you to take a look at E-mail Management Server and try out the demo.  Set up just a couple "E-mail Policies" and you will see just how much space you can save! (Note: You can also define an E-mail Policy to examine mailboxes and only provide a report.)