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This article explores the importance of enterprise message management and archiving for protecting corporate assets and reducing costs. It discusses the benefits of implementing EM archiving solutions, the role of compliance and risk management, and the new realities of message management in the digital age.
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BACKUP/MASTER:Enterprise Message Management & Archiving A Powerful Tool to help Protect Corporate Assets while reducing the Costs & Risks of Email Peter Gerr Senior Research Analyst Enterprise Strategy Group
Orientation • Enterprise Messaging (EM) applications have become mission critical to modern business • ‘The Smoking Gun” problem – • Electronic communications & records heavily scrutinized, specifically within regulated industries • EM mgmt & archival, though vital, is not a core competency • EM archiving solutions can: • Deliver business & administrative efficiencies • Reduce both the CAPEX & OPEX consumed through managing EM • Mitigate risk associated with enabling corporate governance / regulatory compliance • EM archiving is an increasingly important component of enterprise storage solutions & an entrée into ILM / DLM discussion
Why focus on enterprise messaging? • 61% of end users responded that enterprise messaging applications were the most critical in terms of data protection (ESG Research, January 2004)
Compliance & Risk Management Content & Records Management Storage Management EMA - at the crossroads of IT & business EMA
Storage Management Storage management – Cost reductions Benefits: • Extend useful lives of servers & storage assets • Improve performance of messaging applications • Reduce cost of storage by archiving to lower-cost media • Maintain or reduce administrative / support staff needed to support EM • Reduce time required to recover mailboxes / archived messages & attachments EMA
Content & Records Management Benefits: • Manage / protect corporate intellectual property • Ability to manage lifecycle of electronic business records in accordance with corporate / regulatory compliance • Enables “information-centric” view of business • Unifies asset creation with business workflow • Provides customizable policy / search tools to improve ECM ECM / ERM – Preserving corporate IP EMA
Compliance & Risk Management Corporate governance – Reducing risk Benefits: • Reduces the cost & time to support litigation & perform electronic discovery • Enables proactive sampling, supervision, & auditing • Automates archiving, retention, and deletion of messages based on policy • Single point of management & control for corporate IP • Reduces risk of / discourages unlawful / illegal conduct by employees EMA
The new reality of message management • It is not acceptable to just delete e-mail and IMs • Messaging applications are dynamic not static like documents • Corporations must provide information to opposing council whether or not corporate policy allows for deletion • Mandatory retention periods for best information retention practice • Solutions need to be a combination of proactive, reactive and defensive
Any size organization, public or private at risk • At particular risk: Securities, Insurance, Health Care, Financial Services, Pharmaceutical & Food • Archived records & other content must be readily accessible • Recovery time objectives (RTOs) becoming more stringent Another consideration: Litigation Potential Implications: • Fines & Sanctions • Loss of Shareholder Value & Trust • Class Action Lawsuits • Potential Criminal Charges • Prison Terms for Executives
“New Rules” of message management • Retention The requirement to keep records for specified times • Disposition The requirement to delete records in accordance with corporate or regulatory policy • Discovery The requirement to query archived messages for specific records and/or associated content • Disclosure The requirement to retrieve and make records available • Supervision Monitoring for appropriate behavior by employees
What should you consider? • Enterprise message management solutions that are: • Efficient and effective - Ensures appropriate levels of data protection while lowering TCO and reducing risk • Scalable and flexible – Able to handle explosive message volume while enabling automated archival • Secure and intelligent – Protect messages in accordance with regulations yet allow for rapid search, retrieval & supervision
ESG CBA Tool - Key Dimensions • Organizational size • Measures number of EM users within given organization • E-mail usage & volume growth • Measures annual projected growth of EM volume • Impacts storage requirements, administrative costs of general search & retrieval • Record retention policies & regulatory intensity • Measures frequency of compliance-related discovery events • Impacts operational, administrative & legal costs • Average cost per employee • Measures EM user costs & increased productivity (monetized) • Impacts total costs & benefits
Cost categories Software Hardware Design & implementation Training Ongoing administration & support Benefit categories Reduction in service provider costs Reduction in general e-mail search & retrieval costs Reduction in compliance-related E-mail search & retrieval costs Reduction in non-compliance penalties & fees Gains in employee productivity ESG CBA Tool – Cost & benefit categories
ESG findings - Benefits of archiving • Cost avoidance • Hardware - improved utilization of existing servers. Avoid servers & storage proliferation • Compliance – Reduce/mitigate risk of regulatory fines & legal costs • Direct savings • Eliminate third-party archiving service provider contracts • Staff reduction/reallocation • Archiving helps eliminate need to manually enforce mailbox quotas (10 man-hours per week) • Compliance insurance policy • Reduced backup size and as a result, RTO
What features should users consider? • Basic features • Insource vs. Outsource? • E-mail/Instant Messaging client support • Exchange, Notes, Groupwise, SendMail • Public networks (Yahoo, MSN, AIM) & Private • Policy-based mailbox and retention management • Full content (message & attachment) indexing • “beware of false positives” • De-duplication/coalescence of redundant data & attachments (enables “single-instance storage”) • Full audit trail
What features should users consider? • Advanced features • Active surveillance – • Monitor inbound / outbound messages for suspicious, inappropriate, or forbidden terms • Active quarantine - • Ability to segregate pre- and post-delivery messages that violate corporate policies • Corporate governance/compliance-enabling features • 3rd party supervision & review • Customizable lexicon for queries (templates are nice) • Electronic discovery & litigation support workflow
High-level benefits to consider • Executive management, CxOs, kegal & compliance - • Appeal to mandate to mitigate corporate risk & lower IT costs • Lower TCO for EM environment, legal/consultative support • Improve organization’s ability to manage & protect corporate I.P. • IT, Storage, & e-mail administration – • Appeal to ineffective, costly & risky EM management practices • Extend life of server/storage assets while improving EM performance • Improve/maintain data protection levels as EM volume grows • Knowledge workers, staff – • Increased productivity, reduction/elimination of PSTs & IT-imposed quotas • Minimal impact to workflow with short learning curve