In addition to these IT challenges of managing storage, securing data, and ensuring optimal system performance, legal and regulatory requirements are adding to the squeeze...
What we'd specifically like to address - as a part of this email madness - is eDiscovery. You may have already heard the term, thrown around by a panicked co-worker over a needed whiskey. Or, you might know it as eDisclosure. Irrespective of what it's called, it's something you need to understand (in a way that won't drive you to several whiskeys). Let's take a look.
In it's simplest form, eDiscovery is the finding of electronic records. This refers to the discovery process that follows an initiation of legal action. So how does it apply to email?
What you need to know about eDiscovery
Electronically stored information includes any document that isn't from paper, and that has an intangible form, volume, transience and persistence. Electronically stored data can be involved in litigation cases.
The fines involved with email include those that apply to all discoverable materials; this means that they have the same value, weight, and impact as paper documents like contracts and letters.
Before any litigation matter can proceed to court, all parties are liable to present relevant documents. But what if it's an email feed from three years ago?
Since most documents these days are stored in email - which would be specific to a data request case - you'd need effective email discovery to avoid painful fines. These expensive fines are a key driver in responsibly archiving emails.
You need to deliver a document that clearly describes or explains a particular issue for it to to be regarded as real evidence. If your organisation is involved in litigation, the email discovery process is invaluable to supporting your case. This is why an effective email archiving system makes it easy to filter out emails that don't contain documents.
What you need to know about eDiscovery filtering
Digital information needs to be stored in a way that allows you or a relevant party to examine the stored data in an efficient and successful manner. Generally, you're expected to present these documents quickly, in a legally defined period.
So, it's vital that organisations archive their emails in a way that facilitates speedy retrieval. The basics? Any organisation subject to litigation must be able to locate, retrieve and respond to data requests in a timely fashion. This means it's imperative that corporate data is stored in a central repository and made easily accessible.
What you need to know about penalties for poor eDiscovery
Both individuals and companies can be prosecuted in the event of a regulatory compliance breach. In Australia, penalties can reach $330,000 for companies and $60,000 - with five years imprisonment - for individuals. The latter includes the board of directors.
Why you need to act on email archiving now
Imagine this: You're asked to produce all emails from 2001 between the VP of Marketing and the Product Manager. Your lawyer advises you to do it as quickly as possible. But where would you start? How long would it take you to recover all these emails? What is important? Do you actually have the time?
Without an archiving system, your data can't be easily retrieved. Back-up tapes aren't compliant with eDiscovery; and local PST files are simply cluttered.
Why your data should be stored offline with limited accessibility
The legal requirements around data retention don't tell you how to store data - only that you should. Fancy printing and filing all the emails that go in and out of your organisation? If so, maybe you should start investing in a new property, entirely dedicated to housing filing cabinets and binders. Practical, right? Inexpensive, you'd think? Well, no. And no. Nor is it the greenest solution on offer.
Instead, consider the groundbeaking technology of cloud computing, which enables cloud-based email archiving system. And there are other options (like having an in-house data centre), but cloud archiving significantly aids your organisation with eDiscovery.
And some of the benefits of cloud-based archiving systems include:
- You can access your data 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Location doesn't matter; you have access from anywhere in the world, as long as you have a web browser.
- Your data is never stored offline, but is available in seconds in a one-stop repository, providing you with unlimited storage capacity.
With eDiscovery being part and parcel of email compliance in contemporary Australian business, it's time you give your options an investigation. We say yes to cloud-based archiving.
Christa is a Marketing Assistant at SAVE IT cloud based email archiving. Check out the email archiving blog at ( http://blog.saveit.com.au/ )
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