If there is one thing that is essential to all businesses, it is dependable and efficient email communications. Regardless whether you are a small entrepreneurial operation or work within a large corporation, it is important to understand the reason why you need an email archiving solution to archive these email communications. This article hopes to shed some light on the importance of email archiving as well as the legalities entailed.
What is Email Archiving?
Email Archiving is a method of storing all your email communications. This gives organisations the ability to recall any email communication as required. By archiving their emails, organisations are complying with legal requirements that state that all businesses are required to archive all emails as these emails help protect both the company and the client in contractual agreements or legal proceedings.
As well as legal benefits, archiving would enable your organisation to be quick and efficient in case of any Subject Access Requests. It would also free up some much needed server space and in turn allow it to run as optimal speed.
Email Archiving vs Email Back-Up
Although commonly mistaken to be the same thing, email archiving and email back-up are completely different. Backing up emails ensures that the content is secured outside of the email inbox and allows it to be recalled. However it does not utilise any intelligent software solutions. On the other hand, email archiving implements software solutions that protect data and organises it in a way that’s useful and efficient for the company. This means that unlike with email back-up where you would have to wade through countless emails to find the one you are looking for, archived emails can be extracted easily through the different search and retrieval features available. Emails contained within the email archiving solution are protected with the most advanced security which is always updated and maintained by your email archiving provider, however email backups create .pst files that can be copied and stored outside the network putting at risk your data and opening breaches in your data protection policy.
Archiving and Security
When it comes to storing sensitive communication data, security is very essential. As there is usually too much data to search through, in-house IT teams are generally not well equipped to properly maintain their efficiency and functionality whilst handling and securing email archiving.
An email archiving provider can offer solutions to store communications on external cloud servers in read-only format so that it cannot be altered or modified. It also ensures that only authorised users can access it. All of these communications are also protected even if your email service provider is down or if individual accounts experience a security breach.
So why Archive?
As the amount of emails sent increases year by year, the importance of email communication continues to grow. When contracts are all e-signed documents in email attachments and almost all company to client communication is conducted via email, your business’ email communications are as important as any hard-copy printed documents. Regardless of your size, in order to ensure that your business communications run smoothly and that both your business and your clients are protected and in compliance with industry regulations, you need to implement a dependable email archiving strategy.
For mor information about the Cloudsis Email Archiving solution please click here.