Not long ago, email archive infrastructure was primarily developed and built on-site; that is, within the premises of a traditional brick-and-mortar structure, which is usually the organization’s physical location. Cloud archiving was not even a factor to consider. However, as email communications slowly but steadily declined, and even considered by some as archaic, as a platform for quick communication, the market began to shift to more viable real-time alternatives like Instant Messaging, voice and video chat. With these changes in electronic communications channels, legacy email archive systems may not be able to adapt.
While there is a growing need for a more flexible email archive solution, organizations still weren’t too keen on embracing the Cloud. Concerns and misconceptions abound, with security being on top of the list. However, it is a fact that data breaches are primarily caused internally; that is, by employees within the organization. While IT departments still need to be on top of their security on a cloud server, providers of cloud archiving solutions must also adhere to certain security protocols. Otherwise, their business could be greatly affected.
Cloud archiving solutions are adaptable to the changes and trends in electronic communications. A legacy email archiving system only retrieves the original email (with the same subject, sender, and recipient) and the thread that follows through email. If subsequent exchanges on the same subject matter occurred on a different communications channel, vital information could be lost, as the eDiscovery system only retrieved the original email.
With a cloud-based electronic communications and email archive solution, “context-aware” archiving is performed, so when a subject or sender is searched, everything that occurred within the same time frame will be retrieved, including other channels that they used and with whom they communicated. This makes regulatory compliance a lot easier to handle—from archiving to storage to retrieval.
Additionally, a cloud-based email archive is more cost-effective as it does away with software upgrades, maintaining the backend infrastructure, and allocating a budget for server space and overhead expenses. Further, a flexible cloud archiving solution helps organizations manage risks, especially in relation to their legal liability.
Finally, more regulatory bodies have started encouraging organizations to adopt a cloud-based email archive solution. Financial services regulation authorities like the European regulatory bodies, for instance, are encouraging financial institutions to adopt cloud services for their electronic communications archiving.
Trends in electronic communications change in the blink of an eye and organizations must adopt these into their archiving system on the fly, for compliance purposes.
