The term ‘email archive solution’ sounds really technical. In some ways it is. But it can also be broken down into something very simple. An email archive solution is just a safe place to keep an email until you need it. Of course, businesses have thousands of emails and huge archives but the principal is the same.
The thing is, especially in businesses that don’t use an email archive solution, we can be really careless with our email. Online communication has become so commonplace that most of us have developed bad habits. We throw emails back and forth without thinking; we hold private or business sensitive email conversations as if we were in our own living room. And we’re even worse when it comes to email retention.
Your Pocket?
Many of us do most or all of our work on mobile devices these days, if we ever save an email we save it to the device at hand. That might even be a smartphone. Imagine if that email were the only paper copy of a document. Would you really just stuff it in your pocket?
On Your Desk…Somewhere?
Even if your email is held on a client server, it’s still not really secure. If your inbox were spread over your desk, how would you find a specific email? Picture the piles of paper created if your entire inbox were printed out. Sorting through that particular email archive solution would take a long, long time.
The Basement?
Taking it one step further, maybe you don’t have an archive but you do backup your email to tape. That tape is then stored for use when required. Tapes don’t have the capability to sort email into an easily searchable format. To recover mail you have to ‘run’ the tape. You have to sift through everything on it to find what you’re looking for. Essentially, what you’ve just done is take that pile of paper off your desk and shove it in the basement.
Many businesses avoid getting an email archive solution because they see it as an added cost. Or they feel that their current system is just as effective. The question you have to ask is, would you treat paper documents that way?
Using an email archiving appliance has many benefits over traditional storage units. We have put together a white paper of 10 benefits that email archiving can offer you and your business.
