Compliance prompts faster email and IM data discovery

Vendors are struggling to supply IT managers with storage management tools that meet their needs

Vendors are rushing to provide IT managers with storage management tools to aid compliance with data retention guidelines, with Symantec and IBM the latest to introduce updated software this week.

Symantec has released version 7.0 of its Enterprise Vault data archiving and enterprise content management (ECM) application, whilst IBM has updated its Tivoli Storage Manager (TSM) backup and recovery solution.

Enterprise Vault 7.0 has been expanded to search and classify the data held in more mailboxes, automatically enforcing retention and electronic discovery policies based on 50 pre-defined rules, or an unlimited number of customised ones.

Better integration with Microsoft Exchange 2007 means the software can utilise Windows Desktop Search (WDS) and Rights Management Services (RMS), and search and classify instant messaging (IM) content by capturing Live Communication Server traffic.

Analyst firm Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG) recently estimated that global organisations will collectively archive 7,000 petabytes of e-mail over the next four years, while 77 per cent of companies have been required to find and produce email messages as part of electronic discovery requests for legal purposes.

‘Most organisations at this stage are looking at storage from a management and performance perspective, though in the EU we are seeing an increased demand to find data information quickly in the case of litigation,’ said Symantec spokesman Fredrik Sjostedt.

‘From the company perspective, it is really about being able to search and access data in a more efficient manner – they might not have a court case, but they still want to get hold of that information very quickly, if only so they can feed it back to customers or partners.’

IBM’s TSM 5.4 adds the ability to consolidate and group the most current data into one storage pool, alongside better encryption key management and data shredding to support information lifecycle management (ILM) compliance.