Cloud Archiving: What is it and why use it?

Companies generate enormous amounts of information. This information is often crucial to ensuring that business processes operate seamlessly. Company data contains sensitive information, too, often including intellectual property. The volumes of data generated are staggering. For example, according to Statistica, over 333 billion emails are expected to be sent and received every day during 2022. By 2025, enterprises will generate almost 104 zettabytes of data - 60% of the global total of generated data. Keeping this data safe and accessible is vital for business operations, legal reasons, compliance, and business continuity.

Storage of data for long-term access is a must-have for an enterprise; this is where cloud archiving comes in

 

What is Cloud Archiving?

A cloud archive is a Storage-as-a-Service option to store long-held data that does not require frequent access in a safe and secure place. A cloud archive is designed specifically for all types of data, including unstructured data such as emails, to keep safely in a central location for access, if and when needed. In addition, a cloud archive system brings data from multiple points across an entire enterprise together for easier management, maintenance, and access control.

Data stored in a cloud archive system is typically data that is accessed infrequently. For example, a company would use a cloud archive to store emails that may need to be accessible for compliance or legal reasons.

Because cloud archiving is available as-a-Service, it is an ideal solution for delivery by a managed service provider (MSP) on behalf of enterprise clients.

 

Why use Cloud Archiving?

Cloud archiving has entered the lexicon of storage capabilities because it has some key selling points:

Lower costs: cloud-based cloud archiving solutions offer a more cost-effective way to store long-term unstructured data such as emails. Cost reduction is seen in lower upfront costs as no on-premise hardware or software is required. A third-party often handles maintenance and management of cloud archiving solutions, such as an MSP. An MSP who offers a managed cloud archive solution for clients can help to control costs by providing the service using a regular monthly fee.

Unlimited email storage: cloud archives store data, including emails, in a central cloud database making the data accessible anytime and from any location by authorized individuals. Cloud archiving is an ideal way to store emails that would otherwise have to be stored in an Exchange Server or in Office 365 mailboxes. However, both have storage limits and increasing costs as more storage is required: ArcTitan saves an enterprise up to 75% of email storage space.

Scalability: cloud-based archiving solutions offer enterprise scalability with no on-premise hardware and no limit on user numbers.

Security: a cloud archiving service must be secure. The data held in cloud storage may be sensitive and contain proprietary information that would expose a company to damage and non-compliance fines if breached. Therefore, cloud archiving solutions must use encryption during data transfer and storage to ensure security. In addition, access to the stored data must be done using the principles of least privilege and enforcing robust authentication. Also, security awareness training that includes regulation and compliance awareness associated with data storage should also ensure that a cloud archive system is used securely.

Legal requests and investigations: timely access to emails, and emails as evidence, may be required as part of an investigation. eDiscovery of emails and other data is handled effectively by a cloud archive system. Unlike email backup systems, cloud archives are designed to handle eDiscovery quickly and efficiently.

Compliance maintenance: Regulatory bodies such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), Sarbanes-Oxley Act, and the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act each have audit and retention as part of compliance requirements. Audit requirements usually require a company to promptly produce documents and emails. In addition, some privacy and data protection regulations, such as the EU’s GDPR, place companies under time pressures to respond to requests to access personal data. For example, the GDPR gives 30-days to respond to a Data Subject Access Request (DSAR). Cloud archiving is designed to allow efficient searches to be performed to ensure that the recovery of the requested data is fast. Retention requirements vary but typically require that documents and emails be kept safely for three to seven years.

 

ArcTitan Email Archiving

ArcTitan is an email archiving system designed to deliver cloud-based email storage at lightning-fast speed backed by robust security. ArcTitan is integrated into Office365, making the process of email archiving a simple and automated operation. This ‘set and forget’ capability removes human error and makes regulatory compliance simple and reliable.

Some of the features of ArcTitan include:

Cost-effective

ArcTitan operates a flexible “pay as you go” email archiving model. Per live user subscription only with savings of up to 75% of email storage space.

Accessible

The ArcTitan archive is accessed through almost any mail client or a web-based interface. End users can use a powerful search engine to locate archived emails. This reduces the load on IT support when emails are deleted from a user’s inbox. Access is managed using an advanced delegation mechanism, compatible with LDAP and Active Directory. This allows administrators to create a permission hierarchy for key employees.

Secure

ArcTitan enforces data encryption (in transit and at rest) during transfer and storage. Data transfer encryption is based on the TLS standard (Transport Layer Security). All passwords are hashed and encrypted. Other security features include digital certificate management and antivirus scanning of emails. In addition, robust authentication and access control is enforced.

Audit

Tamper-evident audit trails identify any unauthorized alterations to archived emails.

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