Making Sense of Archiving for Microsoft Environments

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1 Making Sense of Archiving for Microsoft Environments Contents Why Archiving Matters Archiving Challenges: PST Files and Other Enemies of Exchange Admins Exchange 2010 and Archiving Microsoft Office 365 and Archiving Solutions: How Mimecast Can Help Brought to you compliments of: archiving can be a particular challenge for businesses as they try to optimize storage and server usage while simultaneously allowing access to archived messages. As more businesses adopt Exchange 2010 and consider software-as-a-service (SaaS) options, they will be looking for seamless migrations and effective archiving. This white paper examines archiving in relation to the Microsoft Exchange architecture and discusses ways to simplify that infrastructure. Why Archiving Matters Archives aren t just dusty, unused files. archives are actively used by businesses to meet compliance mandates, e-discovery requests and internal corporate needs. It s essential for businesses to have full access to past information, but there are plenty of challenges to building good archives. Archived data keeps expanding, while the length of time s are saved continues to grow. Overall data growth and larger files mean that companies must store staggering quantities of current and past . These archives need to be stored in a technically sound, flexible way to avoid storing redundant data and ensure fast searches. And, of course, cost is always a consideration when organizations are looking at long-term storage options Mimecast

2 Compliance regulations have emerged as has matured, and e-discovery has become a brisk business. In litigation matters, fast archive searches and accurate e-discovery searches are essential. Businesses facing e-discovery and legal holds must be able to prove a chain of custody for s and that messages have been tamper-proof since their creation. Over the past decade, has become a top method of communication for businesses. In a recent survey by Loudhouse Research, 66 percent of respondents said is their preferred communication tool at work. This should come as no surprise, since is widely recognized as a primary method of documenting corporate history and transactions. archiving isn t simply storage for the sake of compliance or legal issues. archives are often treasure troves of organizational knowledge and intellectual property that has accumulated over the years. Having easy access and capabilities for simple and fast archive searches enables employees to take better advantage of that information. Also, users may tend to comply with corporate policies if they have better access. Archive access means less need for users to documents or information to personal accounts. More than half of the respondents in a recent survey (56 percent) said they have some frustrations with their work mailboxes, even though 80 percent said they don t know the mailbox limit on their work account. And 79 percent of those surveyed said they send work s from their personal accounts. If work mailboxes had unlimited storage, 40 percent of respondents would be less likely to send work s to personal accounts. 1 For many users these days, mailbox storage space fills up quickly, particularly when s are large or contain attachments. One problem is that policies are often unclear or not well enforced, and archiving is a particular area of confusion for businesses and users. The same survey found that even when corporate policies exist, only 42 percent cover management and only 30 percent address retention. For the two-thirds of respondents without retention policies, potential compliance or litigation issues could prove challenging. When companies don t have a high-performing, easy-to-use environment, IT often gets bogged down with investigative searches. At law firm Miles and Stockbridge, for example, every must be saved. The firm s historical archiving application had limits on the amount of it could handle, and other options slowed Exchange server performance too much. Overall storage space wasn t adequate. The firm cut its costs by 50 percent and gained unlimited storage for archiving after implementing Mimecast s cloud-based solution and the CIO saved countless management hours. Archiving Challenges: PST Files and Other Enemies of Exchange Admins Of course, a straightforward, accessible and easily searchable archive can be elusive for many organizations. itself has become a complex tool and a major piece of any company s infrastructure, making archiving more difficult, especially with new regulations, compliance issues and legal holds. In addition, along with messages, metadata has become a key factor in archiving, since it lets organizations prove the delivery or receipt of messages held in the archive. That added data results in further need for strong search capabilities and cost-effective storage options. 1 Loudhouse Research Generation Gmail survey, January Mimecast

3 IT teams have felt the impact of increased and archiving use. Too often, IT must juggle server utilization and storage to save s without buying more hardware. And users often get frustrated by archive searches that are slow or incomplete, or that require them to learn a new search interface leading to more help desk queries for IT. administrators also have to manage retention policies in accordance with litigation and regulatory requirements. One option is to save PST files to users individual machines. Another is limiting the size of files that can be transferred via . Neither method solves the problem though. PST files add risk and limit global search capabilities, and limiting file size only causes user frustration and hampers productivity. Unfortunately, these options don t lend themselves to long-term scalability. In many cases, the demand for archiving is outpacing organizations ability to provide effective solutions. The IT team running the Cleveland Indians infrastructure found that cloud archiving was the solution to the organization s problems. It had been enforcing strict mailbox sizes and using user-maintained PST files to keep pace with growing volumes. Since implementing Mimecast, users have saved significant time not having to find and access PST files, and IT has received fewer calls related to problems such as failed deliveries. For many organizations struggling with archiving, one e-discovery request can take many hours and result in lost productivity if an archive isn t well organized or easy to search. Compliance regulations may require a company to keep all s for a certain period of time and be able to prove that those messages have been secure during that time. For a small or medium business, and even larger companies, the infrastructure needed to support such archive storage can be overwhelming. Also, poorly protected archives, or those without enough capacity, can lead to security breaches and policy lapses. One type of solution on-premises archiving often lacks the scalability required for managing growing volumes and, in many cases, is not cost-effective. In addition, with on-premises archiving, IT has yet another system to manage, troubleshoot and back up. Backing up either an on-premises archive tool or Microsoft Exchange can degrade system performance and consume a significant amount of IT s time. A recent survey found that 50 percent of organizations use two or more providers for continuity, archiving and security. 2 But it is possible for IT managers to find solutions that handle multiple functionalities, and for archiving to integrate closely with other solutions. Centralized archive storage should also integrate easily with Outlook and be covered with continuity plans beyond simple backups. Exchange 2010 and Archiving Microsoft Exchange is an extremely popular, robust and complex platform. Its latest iteration Exchange 2010 boasts new information protection features and better consistency for users across computers and mobile devices. Based on the enhanced features, upgrading to Microsoft Exchange 2010 is on the minds of many IT managers these days. A recent survey found that just under 20 percent of respondents had already migrated, while the majority of respondents, nearly 52 percent, were planning migrations in the next 12 months. 3 2 Mimecast Exchange Infrastructure Survey, November Mimecast Exchange Infrastructure Survey, November Mimecast

4 Those who have already upgraded know that the process requires careful planning. IT teams must consider how to avoid prolonged downtime, how to get the most out of Exchange s new capabilities, how to integrate it into the current infrastructure and how to handle archives. There are always risks involved with a technology upgrade, considering that admins are breaking down a system to prepare for the new installation. The risks involved may include downtime, data loss, interruptions to policy enforcement and cost escalations. Mimecast guarantees continuity throughout the migration, and it keeps archive access available even if the Exchange server is offline during the upgrade. In addition, Mimecast makes all antispam, antivirus, data leak prevention, archiving, content control, continuity and archiving services available on one platform. Instead of juggling multiple point solutions, Mimecast users have a unified system. That reduces the risk that complexity can bring, and it ensures that policies are in place throughout a migration. Mimecast s network of geographically dispersed data centers ensures not only high availability, but also a high level of security. Migrating historical to Mimecast s online archive before migration means that data is secure, migration time is shorter, and policy application is ensured. Also, with seamless Outlook integration and automated failover capabilities, users get 100 percent uptime during the migration, including BlackBerry access as well as access to archived s and webmail. After migration, Mimecast continues to offer benefits, including a 100 percent uptime service-level agreement (SLA), with an independent data store. Mimecast in conjunction with Microsoft Exchange also makes for better data security all held in the Mimecast archive is encrypted and stored in triplicate across geographically dispersed locations. It also provides continuous security and retention policy enforcement and reduces the load on the Exchange server. In addition, user mailboxes become bottomless, archives become infinitely scalable, and the overall architecture becomes simpler. Mimecast also offers an external mail routing engine that is independent of the organization s infrastructure. Costs become much more predictable as well. Microsoft Office 365 and Archiving The Microsoft Office 365 suite focuses on both messaging and collaboration, and offers users strong capabilities to manage their Exchange Online mailboxes on a subscription basis in a SaaS environment. Moving to the SaaS model for can be a big step for businesses, one that includes cultural and technical challenges, but also many benefits. SaaS archive solutions often match well with SaaS services. The approach can take pressure off IT by eliminating the need to perform backups and hardware maintenance, and reduce costs by avoiding the major overhead of an in-house infrastructure. And SaaS generally adds peace of mind for organizations grappling with continuity and disaster recovery. When it comes to archiving, Microsoft Office 365 uses an Exchange Personal Archive (EPA), which delivers basic archiving functionality. Organizations looking for functionality beyond basic archiving should consider a third-party archiving solution to complement the Office 365 environment. Some enhancements users should require in a third-party archive solution include: Granular data retention and legal hold policy enforcement. Optimized global search user interface. Ability to retire an account, but maintain storage of the archives Mimecast

5 Solutions: How Mimecast Can Help Deployed in tandem with Office 365, hosted or on-premise Exchange, Mimecast s cloud-based services support organizations adopting Exchange 2010 by offering an independent, tamper-proof, long-term archive with granular e-discovery and legal hold capabilities. The benefits of Mimecast s services for Microsoft Office 365 include: 100% service availability SLA Should there be any planned or unplanned outages during or after the move to Office 365, Mimecast will automatically deliver an uninterrupted service to end users via their Microsoft Outlook mailboxes. A unified system Mimecast supports any combination of Exchange whether on-premises, hosted or as part of Office 365 by enabling centralized policy management and a single, organization-wide archive wherever users mailboxes reside. Legal and compliance support Mimecast s granular e-discovery and litigation hold capabilities allow designated personnel to rapidly identify, control and retrieve data. Strong chains of custody are maintained for each message, providing evidential-quality data, should it be required. Seamless integration The Mimecast solution is easy to set up organizations simply have to switch their MX records to point to Mimecast s data centers and enable SMTP journaling in Microsoft Exchange Online. From there, the archive and continuity capability integrates fully with Microsoft Outlook and Exchange. Migration support Moving historical to the independent Mimecast archive before migrating to Office 365 protects data from the increased risks associated with any migration process and provides the benefit of a single consolidated message repository. To build an ideal archive, companies must choose the right tools. Simplicity should be the goal throughout a straightforward solution that matches with a simple, easy-to-use archive solution. Mimecast s cloud-based product boasts full integration with Microsoft Exchange. The combination makes archiving and archive searches a seamless part of , providing searches that are complete and high-quality. With a cloud-based, bottomless archive, users can access every they have ever sent or received and get robust mailbox management features. And with Mimecast, becomes even more secure. A fully independent archive is separate from the company s infrastructure, offering continuity along with security. Users are able to access all s. Because of Mimecast s tight Outlook integration, all mobile devices, webmail and stay safe, compliant and searchable. And every is encrypted and stored in triplicate. Mimecast stores all administrative search activity as well, and offers granular data retention policy enforcement and secure data storage. As part of an Exchange 2010 migration, Mimecast helps eliminate complexity by adding security, continuity and archiving as a unified solution. The Mimecast-Exchange combination makes it easier for IT teams to enforce mailbox size limits and makes the Exchange migration process easier with reduced risks. For an Office 365 migration, Mimecast is a cost-effective, flexible option and reduces the risk of the migration itself migrating data first, then users Mimecast

6 Combining Microsoft Office 365 with Mimecast maximizes the benefits of moving to a SaaS model. Adding Mimecast to an Office 365 environment adds powerful features quickly, such as forensic-level archiving that retains even user-deleted s for up to 10 years. It also increases availability and extends the message recovery period for Office 365. In addition, Mimecast adds key capabilities for e-discovery, legal holds, granular data retention and self-service search. In general, archiving in the cloud carries a strong value proposition. The infrastructure and performance required is much smaller, and using the cloud reduces capital and labor costs. Mimecast can help IT set improved governance policies and provide a view of usage patterns. Pricing is user-based versus per gigabyte, which adds cost predictability. In addition, cloud archiving can help simplify management for IT, reduce help desk requests through better user search functionality and establish central control of retention policies. The Mimecast cloud architecture delivers full-archive searches to users through Microsoft Outlook or a webmail interface. Multiple geographically dispersed redundant data centers make Mimecast s 100 percent service availability SLA possible. That means that continuity is ensured throughout any Exchange or related infrastructure downtime, and archives are always available. Mimecast also provides data portability if needed, and historical data can be uploaded into the Mimecast archive to deliver a single, searchable repository of all . archiving is more than storage. An archive should be an active part of an organization s infrastructure. Though can pose challenges for IT, it is possible to have an accessible, easy-to-use archive that meets the needs of every user Mimecast