E-mail Archiving
Audit-proof retention, search and restore
The need to implement regulatory-compliant, long-term solutions for e-mail retention—along with the required functions for subsequent restore and deletion of data—has quickly elevated e-mail to the status of a mission-critical business process. Enterprises are now compelled to store business-relevant e-mails for specific timeframes based on their content, and the amassed e-mail must be both audit- and tamper-proof.
Violation of anti-trust and competition laws, rules for corporate governance and guidelines like Basel II and IFRS can result in costly legal procedures, fines and penalties into the millions, claims for third-party damages and have considerable negative impact on corporate image. Imprisonment often threatens those responsible.
The Federal Data Protection Act in Germany has recently been amended to provide significantly stronger rules for governing cases where someone has been damaged through intentional or negligent misuse and storage of personal data. The rules now put the burden of proof not on the person damaged, but instead on the person who caused the damage, who must prove the information was handled properly.
To create a proper e-mail retention system, the storage process must be implemented at a centralized location such as the mail server, and the messages must be categorized automatically by a rule-based algorithm before they are archived. Within this categorization process, spam mail and virus-infected messages must be filtered out, ensuring that only business-relevant e-mail is archived.
To create a comprehensive e-mail lifecycle management (ELM) solution, the e-mail platform and the storage/archiving system must work seamlessly together. iQ.Suite makes this possible by leveraging a specially-engineered module that integrates the e-mail process with enterprise content management, document management and archiving systems.
Violation of anti-trust and competition laws, rules for corporate governance and guidelines like Basel II and IFRS can result in costly legal procedures, fines and penalties into the millions, claims for third-party damages and have considerable negative impact on corporate image. Imprisonment often threatens those responsible.
The Federal Data Protection Act in Germany has recently been amended to provide significantly stronger rules for governing cases where someone has been damaged through intentional or negligent misuse and storage of personal data. The rules now put the burden of proof not on the person damaged, but instead on the person who caused the damage, who must prove the information was handled properly.
To create a proper e-mail retention system, the storage process must be implemented at a centralized location such as the mail server, and the messages must be categorized automatically by a rule-based algorithm before they are archived. Within this categorization process, spam mail and virus-infected messages must be filtered out, ensuring that only business-relevant e-mail is archived.
To create a comprehensive e-mail lifecycle management (ELM) solution, the e-mail platform and the storage/archiving system must work seamlessly together. iQ.Suite makes this possible by leveraging a specially-engineered module that integrates the e-mail process with enterprise content management, document management and archiving systems.
The iQ.Suite approach
With iQ.Suite, archiving takes place before message delivery, making it impossible for users to tamper with or delete messages that are part of the corporate record.
Before delivery to recipients, the e-mails are checked for spam and viruses using rules the enterprise has defined in iQ.Suite's rule-based framework. After that they are automatically classified, stored in designated databases and optionally encrypted. Important metadata like the e-mail header, processing details and search engine category are also sent to the archiving system. This makes it easy to locate and restore e-mail at a later time using keywords, during a tax audit for example. These functions ensure that the legal requirements of an audit-proof solution are satisfied.
Organizations can connect iQ.Suite to leading archiving solutions from third parties, or use iQ.Suite Safe for retention. Data secured in iQ.Suite Safe can be safely and easily transferred to other audit-proof archiving systems as needed.
iQ.Suite Safe
During message delivery, iQ.Suite works in the background to centrally store tamper-proof versions of e-mails in various logical archives. The use of multiple archives is supported, as is the search and restore of e-mails that have been previously archived. Only business-relevant e-mails are archived, and the multiple-copy scenario that results from non-centralized processes is avoided. External and internal e-mail processes are re-constructible and verifiable. The integrity of archived messages is at all times ensured.
With these functions, iQ.Suite Safe supports the direct requirements found in ISO 9000ff. Internal corporate security guidelines for archiving such as restricting access to secured data to authorized personnel can also be implemented with iQ.Suite Safe.
With these functions, iQ.Suite Safe supports the direct requirements found in ISO 9000ff. Internal corporate security guidelines for archiving such as restricting access to secured data to authorized personnel can also be implemented with iQ.Suite Safe.
iQ.Suite Bridge
With the interface and integration module iQ.Suite Bridge, iQ.Suite makes it possible to create an e-mail archiving solution controlled by finely-tunable guidelines for pre-processing, filtering and classification. Archived e-mails can be transferred into an audit-proof storage system. A universal, secure and efficient business process is guaranteed, from the arrival of an e-mail to its audit-proof, legally-compliant archiving.
iQ.Suite Bridge intercepts e-mails on the mail server and routes them for archiving after their content has been filtered according to corporate guidelines, checked for spam and viruses, and classified according to content and address information. These functions ensure that only "clean" and relevant e-mails—including their attachments—reach the archiving system.
After the archiving process, e-mails can be temporarily parked in a compliance system where they can be once more examined for regulatory and corporate compliance. Depending on the results of these examinations, iQ.Suite puts e-mails into quarantine, deletes them, or routes them to their recipients or to third parties.
iQ.Suite Bridge intercepts e-mails on the mail server and routes them for archiving after their content has been filtered according to corporate guidelines, checked for spam and viruses, and classified according to content and address information. These functions ensure that only "clean" and relevant e-mails—including their attachments—reach the archiving system.
After the archiving process, e-mails can be temporarily parked in a compliance system where they can be once more examined for regulatory and corporate compliance. Depending on the results of these examinations, iQ.Suite puts e-mails into quarantine, deletes them, or routes them to their recipients or to third parties.
iQ.Suite Store
iQ.Suite Store uses customizable rules to control all processes associated with the legally-compliant, automated archiving of e-mails and attachments—up through and including their deletion after specified timeframes. The scalable module supports compression, encryption and the external storage of messages and attachments on inexpensive media. It also delivers a comprehensive search facility and makes it possible to restore true originals of e-mails into user mailboxes.
iQ.Suite Store can in addition operate as the interface between the messaging system and archiving solutions or storage systems (for example IBM Tivoli Storage Manager and NT File System (NTFS)).
When used in combination with the module iQ.Suite Bridge, iQ.Suite Store makes it possible to centrally archive e-mails before they are delivered using a rule-based process that runs on the e-mail server. This centralized approach not only relieves the e-mail system from the need to handle archiving processes and data—it ensures that stored messages are tamper-proof and enables "single instance" archiving of redundant e-mail attachments. In addition to being able to integrate with archiving and records management systems, iQ.Suite Bridge can also tie other critical applications like compliance, ECM/DMS and ERP systems into iQ.Suite to yield a comprehensive E-mail Lifecycle Management solution.
iQ.Suite Store can in addition operate as the interface between the messaging system and archiving solutions or storage systems (for example IBM Tivoli Storage Manager and NT File System (NTFS)).
When used in combination with the module iQ.Suite Bridge, iQ.Suite Store makes it possible to centrally archive e-mails before they are delivered using a rule-based process that runs on the e-mail server. This centralized approach not only relieves the e-mail system from the need to handle archiving processes and data—it ensures that stored messages are tamper-proof and enables "single instance" archiving of redundant e-mail attachments. In addition to being able to integrate with archiving and records management systems, iQ.Suite Bridge can also tie other critical applications like compliance, ECM/DMS and ERP systems into iQ.Suite to yield a comprehensive E-mail Lifecycle Management solution.
Benefits of the iQ.Suite approach
- Selective storage of mail based on the analysis of sender-recipient combinations, recipient groups, internet domains and e-mail content
- Configurable rules for all storage functions
- Support for archiving of encrypted and/or digitally-signed e-mails
- Enables the connection of leading archiving solutions to the e-mail system and supports the complete archiving of e-mails before they are delivered
- Provides legally-compliant, audit-proof archiving of data, as well as indexing (based on metadata), searching, recall and restore of data in the archive
- Generates higher productivity, has a low total cost of ownership and provides a fast return on investment
- Ensures the security of your software investment with regular major releases