A recent study by technology company, CMSWire, found that many companies in the United States get email archives and backups mixed up. As unbelievable as it sounds, the confusion is still rife, even years after the legislation came into force, and organizations are being caught out all the time.
For those who still don’t know the difference, a backup is when a copy is taken of a given media and stored elsewhere. This is to provide disaster recovery should any disaster befall the building, the company or its infrastructure. Every business should have a comprehensive backup process that is followed to the letter, but it is different to archiving.
An archive is designed to copy, store and manage data for the longer term. It is designed to be a permanently separate, accessible silo where the data can be safely kept. Ideally it would be sited somewhere other than the premises, in a purpose built facility where it is protected from all forms of harm such as flood and fire.
In the case of an email archive, for compliance, the email data is siphoned off the corporate email platform and formatted into a particular state. It is then indexed, compressed and then stored safely somewhere else. That storage should be secure, safe and resilient, so the client can access their data should the need arise.
A backup can run in conjunction with an archive, but are completely separate entities. They should not be confused. The only driver for a backup procedure is disaster recovery and damage limitation. Archiving is necessary to satisfy a range of legal obligations that are enforced aggressively, as well as the retention of important information.
It isn’t only for E-discovery that archiving is a good idea. Business depends a lot of email using it as the main means of communication both internal and external. Often corporate communications, policy changes and even external contracts are communicated this way, and they are important for any business to retain for a period of time.
On paper it is an easy mistake to make. Both processes make copies of stuff for retrieval later but only one will protect an organization from litigation if an E-discovery request comes their way.
While emails can be retrieved from a backup, it is a time-consuming and laborious task. With no real indexing facility, finding emails may take a significant amount of time, especially in larger, communication heavy organizations.
An email archive makes it easier to follow email trails and the branches that can occur when mail is copied and forwarded to multiple recipients. A thorough implementation should also comply with the relevant legislation and prevent any action being taken against the company for non-compliance.
Let’s set the record straight once and for all. A backup policy is good methodology, but entirely optional. Email archiving is not. It is mandatory and specified in more than a few laws. Ever since those very high profile corporate scandal cases, every business has had to comply with a set of stringent compliance laws that demands an effective trail be left with any documentation of any kind.
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