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Data management and protection provider CommVault introduced a software enhancement Nov. 28 that it claims improves the speed and accuracy of legal search and discovery of e-mail housed on Microsoft Exchange servers.
Using this new feature—called Outlook Add-In—within an existing CommVault DataArchiver installation, legal or compliance teams now can directly search and retrieve messages from e-mail archives based on the content in e-mail messages, attachments, instant messages, PST files or SMTP messages. No IT assistance is needed, said a spokesperson for CommVault, based in Oceanport, N.J.
Most e-mail search software searches metadata, such as subject line, sender, receiver or time frame, but doesnt search inside each e-mail document.
Microsoft Exchange servers handle about two-thirds of all enterprise e-mail transmissions, according to IT researchers Gartner and IDC.
E-mail is by far the most frequently requested type of business record sought by courts and regulators. Research by industry analysts at the Enterprise Strategy Group indicates that an estimated 77 percent of organizations involved in an electronic data discovery request say they have been asked to produce e-mail messages.
As a result, IT organizations and legal groups are collaborating on discovery processes that require the search, retrieval and production of e-mail for litigation support.
“By extending its already strong e-mail archive management capabilities, CommVault is addressing the need for simplified discovery of e-mail across the enterprise,” said Brian Babineau, an analyst with Enterprise Strategy Group.
“These new enhancements will simplify the work of legal and IT discovery teams tasked with following chain-of-custody requirements and adhering to upcoming amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure,” Babineau said.
With the new Outlook Add-In feature, discovery team members can conduct cross-user, cross-mailbox discovery searches in an Exchange environment through an intuitive extension to the familiar Outlook client—without involving IT personnel, a CommVault spokesperson said.
An authorized user can now access archived data retained on any storage tier—disk, tape, optical or reference archive media—from his or her Outlook client, and receive audit-ready reporting of discovery results, the spokesperson said.
The new Outlook Add-In feature for discovery users is an extension of the user mailbox management capability currently available from CommVault. Existing functionality for the CommVault Exchange client allows users to mark items for mailbox archiving, recall archived items, delete items from the archive, and easily search, browse and retrieve retained items archived from their mailboxes.
“Customers who have not implemented e-mail archiving have indicated they spend between 20 and 200 staff-hours per discovery event to recover data in a searchable format,” said CommVault Vice President of Marketing and Business Development David West.
“With these enhancements, we reduce data discovery turn-around times by empowering critical discovery users to directly search, retrieve and produce e-mail.”
The CommVault Outlook Add-In feature is available immediately to any DataArchiver customer with a valid CommVault maintenance agreement, the spokesperson said.