How to Achieve Regulatory Compliance with Automated E-Mail Archiving

Vested interest in compliance

Regardless of the reason for the archiving mandates, businesses clearly have a vested interest in compliance. Besides exposing the business to potential risks, failure to meet compliance standards may result in fines, sanctions or even decertification to the industry regulatory body—each of which can level a significant financial blow along with the loss of reputation and business.

In addition to being urged into compliance strictly as a regulatory matter, every business should consider e-mail archiving as part of its comprehensive disaster recovery (DR) plan. Fire, flood and other physical damage can wipe out an entire office in minutes, and take with them the vital e-mail data that could actually help aid in recovery efforts.

In addition to these natural disasters, the risk for catastrophic data loss strikes fear into the heart of many IT management professionals and business owners who realize the potential impact a massive data loss can have on business continuity. Even at a granular level, the accidental deletion of a single crucial e-mail can mean the loss of a client, contract or potential opportunity for growth.

Finally, the right e-mail archiving solution can even help to ensure access to the vital e-mail communications stream, even during a server or other IT network outage. With an effective and reliable redundancy and continuity plan in place, a hosted e-mail archiving system can provide a valuable backup e-mail access service that can allow users to send and receive e-mail messages—even when the main server is out of commission due to a failure or even scheduled maintenance. This continuity of communication can help minimize the damage from an outage and prevent the loss of business due to a breakdown in the main system.

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