Archiving smartens up

Storage giant Symantec launches new programme aimed at improving email management

Security and storage giant Symantec is to launch a new partner programme to offer firms improved tools for searching and managing emails and other electronic records.

Under the Intelligent Archiving Partner Programme, the vendor is expected to make available new APIs to help records and content management software specialists plug their products into the Symantec Enterprise Vault email and content archiving system.

Tony Lock of analyst Bloor Research said the anticipated move is good news for Symantec customers, as it would deliver extra functionality and wider platform support to Enterprise Vault.

Meanwhile, storage management specialist BridgeHead Software released survey results last week indicating that 28 percent of UK firms do not archive data such as email. The survey of over 300 IT directors also revealed that 15 percent of firms were unable to estimate how long it would take to retrieve a file lost three months ago, and two percent admitted they would not be able to find the file.

The lack of a high-profile test case in the UK courts involving lost emails means many IT directors have been able to ignore the risks associated with poor data archiving, according to Tony Cotterill, chief executive at BridgeHead. “The regulations have no bite [in terms of financial penalties] so some firms have been happy to just ignore the problem.”