Determining a Legitimate Business Need for Email Archiving

Businesses often deal with issues concerning the storage and usage of data. There are emerging concerns such as regulatory compliance that pose an additional burden to IT management. With this comes the added struggle of making sure that implementing budgets will allow for such adjustments without compromising other areas of the business.

Email administrators then look to cloud email archiving solutions as the most practical way of addressing these problems. Since email archiving is an essential business practice, it gets upgraded into cloud business intelligence which frees up valuable server storage space. It works in such a way that:

• Incoming and outgoing email communication passes through the company’s server and onto the cloud-based archive through a secure channel.
• When users need to access the stored or archived information, they will use the internet for retrieval.

Features of an email archiving solution

There are features that every business should look for before choosing an email archiving solutions provider. First, storage availability should be maximum or at least scalable without requiring expensive fees. Next, the solution should be able to provide support even through different email systems. Cross-platform support is essential because it is not uncommon to communicate with clients that use a different platform. In addition to these, the email archive solution should have top-of-the-line security measures that prevent tampering. Lastly, there should be features catering to auditing, report generation, and an efficient cloud search function.

Indeed, these are the bare minimum features an email archiving solution should have. Companies can still have additional features depending on their needs and organizational goals.

How to determine the need to adopt email archiving solutions

The next question to address is, how does a company determine the need for an email archiving solution? This can depend on several factors:

• Cost. For most small businesses, the cost can be a factor that determines readiness to move to a cloud-based email archiving solution. The benefit of investing in an Office 365 email archiving solution is the ability to predict the expense and adjust it according to the needs of the company.

• Storage capacity. Another indication that a business should adopt email archiving solutions is when there is not enough storage space on the company servers. Storage allotment through azure services email archiving is more flexible. A business can scale up or scale down as much as the company requires.

• eDiscovery. The notion of eDiscovery pertains to the capability of a business to respond promptly to a request for information needed for litigation. If a company has exposure to these risks, an email archiving solution can provide the necessary tools.

• On-premise infrastructure. A business needs to evaluate their current strategies to ensure that minimal disruption is incurred during migration. Look for an email archiving solution that does not require the company to invest in on-premise infrastructure to minimize the cost as well.

The short answer to whether a business needs a cloud-based email archiving solution is, yes. Nevertheless, it still depends on the company to determine their needs and whether or not adopting an email archiving solution is a wise decision.

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