Did you wish that you could store it somewhere for future use? That is where email archiving comes in.
What is email archiving, you ask?
In this article, we will provide an email archiving definition. We will also analyze the meaning of email archiving in today’s interconnected world.
What Is Email Archiving?
The term email archiving describes the process of saving and storing all types of email data in a secure and compliant location. This helps preserve important emails by keeping them for future use instead of deleting them permanently.
Understanding the email archive meaning and how it works:
If the email you receive is not momentarily important enough to stay in your inbox, but you don’t want to delete it, you can archive it. Depending on your email client settings, this can be done manually or automatically. An email archive is a process that makes accessing important data much more manageable and gives you a clean and organized inbox. You get to remove the designated email from your inbox but store it in another just as easily accessible location within your email account.
How email archiving works
Once you archive the email, you transfer them to a designated folder often labeled as ‘Archive’. In some email services, archived emails are moved to an ‘All Mail’ folder and can be easily retrieved in the future if needed.
However, a copy of the email may still exist in its original folder or label, depending on how you configure your email client. Email services like Gmail allow you to apply multiple labels on an email, so it doesn’t necessarily remove it from other folders.
In case someone replies to the email, it will reappear in your inbox. The simplest way to understand the email archive’s meaning is to look at it as virtual file storage. That location can either be on-site or on a dedicated virtual cloud.
This process is simple to put in place and use. But it must also be in compliance with regional country laws and international best practices. Email archiving tools often serve to meet regulatory compliance and store vital email data.
Difference between email archiving and email journaling
Understanding the differences between email archiving and email journaling is essential. Both involve systematic storage and management of email communications and can be used in eDiscovery. However, these practices differ in their characteristics and serve different purposes.
Email archiving aims to store and manage emails for long-term retention securely. Once archived, the email data cannot be altered or manipulated. It retains its original form and is indexed for regulatory compliance.
On the other hand, email journaling’s primary purpose is recording and creating shadow copies of all incoming and outgoing emails in real-time. This practice is often employed for regulatory compliance, and the copies are stored in a journal archive. Generally, journaling captures emails in their original format, and their storage duration varies depending on the organizational needs and compliance requirements.
What is Email Archiving Solution?
The term email archiving solution describes the ways in which sensitive email information can be stored.
There are three main types of email archiving solutions:
- On-site
- Cloud-based
- Hybrid
Each one has unique advantages and disadvantages, which we will look at below.
On-site email archiving
This type of email archiving is done on company premises. It means that every piece of email data is stored locally on dedicated servers within company headquarters.
With on-site email archiving, organizations have complete control over their data and the hardware and software used for archiving. They can implement security measures and protocols based on their needs.
Setting up and maintaining an on-site email archiving solution typically requires a higher initial capital. The cost increases over time as the technology evolves, the volume of data grows, and the duration of email storage increases.
The costs include hardware and software investments and the hiring of dedicated specialists to run the servers, as well as more equipment maintenance. However, it may provide cost advantages in the long run compared to subscription-based options.
Organizations and businesses of different sizes and across various industries can use on-site email archiving. It is particularly valuable for companies that prefer managing their email infrastructure internally rather than relying on cloud-based services. This involves businesses, educational institutions, healthcare providers, legal firms, and others.
Cloud-based email archiving
The development of technology, paired with the internet evolution, made cloud-based storage possible.
Cloud-based storage is the opposite of on-site storage.
It means that the data is virtually stored on multiple servers and can only be accessed via a stable internet connection.
The benefits of cloud-based storage, and one of the reasons it has grown in popularity, is due to its greater cost-efficiency as it reduces initial setup costs and maintenance expenses.
Among the advantages of cloud-based email archiving services are scalability, flexibility, data security, and advanced search capabilities.
Hybrid email archiving
The hybrid email archiving solution is a versatile way of archiving emails that can suit many businesses and companies.
Why is the hybrid approach beneficial?
Because it can adapt to the needs of each company, allowing them to choose which email data to archive locally and which to send to the cloud.
On the other hand, the hybrid approach to email archiving can result in potential risks. These include the loss of data due to multiple locations storage, as well as data tracking complications.
Why is Email Archiving Beneficial?
Now that we’ve examined what is email archiving and the email archiving solutions, let’s have a look at the benefits it provides.
There are many benefits to email archiving.
Some of them are obvious, some will surprise you, while others will give you peace of mind.
Here are the ones that we think are the most important.
Compliance with regulations
Journal email archiving plays a crucial role in ensuring the integrity and authenticity of emails. It captures emails in original forms and stores them as unique pieces of data that cannot be altered or tampered with in any way.
This makes it highly beneficial for companies in different industry sectors to comply with regulations.
For example, companies in the healthcare, financial, legal, or other sectors must abide by certain regulations of data privacy and management in order to operate within the law.
Some of these regulations include the HIPAA guidelines and the General Data Protection Regulation(GDPR).
In cases of litigation, if a company needs to provide email evidence in court, then using email archiving is the best way to do it.
It also enables the efficient use of eDiscovery, which is a specific form of digital evidence investigation.
Greater data retention and monitoring
Archiving emails allows for greater data retention than ever before.
This is especially true for cloud-based email storage.
Successful companies can generate thousands of emails in a given timeframe, and many of them need to be sorted and stored for future use.
Email archiving tools allow for this to happen efficiently, in combination with cloud server storage.
Unnecessary email data, such as spam, junk files, etc., will automatically be deleted. On the other hand, important emails will be archived accordingly. This will result in greater retention of email data for future use.
Data monitoring is also improved using email archiving. This goes for both on-site and cloud-based email storage.
Each piece of archived email information is immediately available, allowing for immediate access to vital information.
Increased efficiency
Efficiency is something every successful company is looking to optimize.
With a high number of employees, the amount of electronic personal data rises, and management becomes more and more tedious.
So, instead of going through each email individually, companies can automatically archive the most important ones while maintaining email management at a higher level.
This will allow them to do faster email recovery and data searching, increasing their productivity and efficiency.
Conclusion
Emails are and will remain, one of the most important ways of digital communication in today’s internet age. They carry vital information that can result in the success or failure of business ventures worldwide.
That being said, proper information management and safekeeping are crucial to avoid any negative consequences.
This is why we tried to explain what is email archiving and the various solutions that enable it.
We hope you will find this article helpful and start to see the importance of understanding email archiving.
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