Originating Author: Dave Vellante
Driven by compliance, legal discovery and the need to retain data, information and records (indefinitely) email archiving discussions have moved from the IT lab to the boardroom. Properly architected email archive systems can reduce corporate risk exposure by billions of dollars. But often, IT managers still are motivated to justify spending on such solutions based on IT cost savings. This is due to the enormous cost pressures on IT.
The conversation often starts with fears of the CFO bearing down and further hammering IT staffs. Corporations should stop wasting valuable time trying to cut corners on archiving requirements and understand that every email that enters the company that is not spam must be accessible for periods of time that will outlive current infrastructure. The justification for this is to reduce corporate risk and support e-discovery initiatives. To reduce costs, organizations should consider only archiving emails for corporate executives as a starting point, although this will almost certainly leave large areas of legal exposure.
Intiatives will encompass much more than emails, to include instant messages, documents, records eventually voice and other intellectual property. Starting with email, the most abused, mis-understood and potentially exposed asset just makes good business sense.
Action Item: IT managers need to form a partnership with legal and put forth a credible email archiving and document retention plan justified on risk mitigation. Trying to justify projects with IT savings (via factors such as .PST reduction) or incremental business value (e.g. larger mailbox sizes) will often lead to dead ends. This is one initiative where scare tactics are warranted.
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