Archiving systems improve email management

Advantages include better compliance with regulations and lower support costs

Firms could avoid many problems of storage management and regulatory compliance, and reduce IT support costs, by investing in email archiving technologies, according to a leading messaging expert.

Speaking at the annual Inbox Outbox email event yesterday (21 June), Mike Osterman, founder of Osterman Research, said storage management for email is one of the main challenges for IT managers, but archiving tools can reduce the difficulties.

"Dealing with spam used to be [the main problem] but now it's storage management," said Osterman. "Longer attachments, richer media and more use of email are causing a lot of problems."

Osterman added that regulatory compliance is encouraging interest in email archiving tools, and requirements for legal discovery - currently a major factor in the US – are also pushing firms towards archiving technology.

"[Legal discovery requirements] worldwide is becoming an important driver," said Osterman. "If a company is sued it must produce [certain records] and an inability to do so could be seen as evidence of consciousness of guilt."

Archiving systems could also reduce the time IT staff spend dealing with cases of missing or deleted mail, as users would be able to reach into the archive and extract information themselves, said Osterman.