The IBM CommonStore eMail Archiving, Discovery and Compliance solution provides a scalable and fully integrated offering to address three key business requirements: Mailbox Management, eMail Search, and Discovery.  These offerings provide information lifecycle management of e-mail from creation to disposition for Microsoft Exchange and IBM Lotus Domino users.

Mailbox Management

The IBM CommonStore e-mail archiving solution can be set to move older, inactive documents from user mailboxes to an external archive. Therefore storage on mail servers is significantly reduced. Users get virtually unlimited mailbox space, and can also work smarter and faster because application performance is enhanced, while system backup and restore times are streamlined.

Meanwhile the organization can benefit from information lifecycle management (ILM). Older information can be set to automatically move to less-expensive storage media as it becomes less useful and critical. The result can be substantial savings.

What’s more, archiving provided by IBM CommonStore is transparent to users. They continue to use their mail client interface, or a Web access client interface, as they did before. Archived messages look like they’re still in the mailbox. However messsages are stored in IBM's flagship content management system, IBM Content Manager. Retrieving them is as simple as clicking on them. Users no longer have to make local copies of archived messages to work with them, or delete messages to stay within a limit.

Best of all, users can conduct a full text search of their current and archived correspondence, and all attachments, directly from their e-mail client.

E-mail Search and Discovery

Building on the framework of the Mailbox Management capabilities, the eMail Search component provides organizations with eMail Search and Discovery for litigation support.  The IBM Archiving, Discovery and Compliance solution can be directed to capture and archive all incoming and outgoing e-mails before they actually reach the recipient. This ensures that the e-mail is stored in its original form and the user cannot manipulate it. The solution then creates a thorough index of e-mail contents and applies time-based retention and destruction rules, making it possible for organizations to easily comply with strict corporate or government regulations, while keeping associated operational costs down.

This archiving process is transparent to users and automated by the critical component of the solution, IBM CommonStore. Users continue to use their mail client interface, or a Web access client interface, as they did before without any impact from the addition of the eMail Search component.

Authorized users (such as auditors or compliance officers) can do a cross-mailbox search by more than just keywords, names and dates. IBM eMail Search technology enables them to also leverage phrases, Boolean logic, proximity search, fuzzy search, and wild cards. These options are a critical time-saver during legal discovery. In addition, automatic deletion of e-mails can be suspended if they are part of an investigation. It is also possible to export found e-mails so that they can be handed over to an external investigator.