Archive for the ‘Compliance’ Category

First of all, many of you are wondering what RBS is.  Remote BLOB Storage (RBS) is an API that is available as an add-on feature pack for Microsoft SQL Server 2008 and Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Express.  It is designed to actually move the storage of binary large objects (BLOBs) from costly storage on database servers to cheaper storage solutions and is also available as  such for SharePoint Portal Server.  The advantages of RBS are that it can save you a significant amount of storage space, conserves hardware resources and allows the end user transparent access to their data.

As with much in this  industry many things are referred to with different phrases or acronyms.  Earlier this week I read an interesting question on one of the discussion lists that I follow and the question was if the process of legal holds would also apply for pending or reasonably assumed investigations by regulatory agencies.

In my previous blog I exposed the naked truth about Exchange deleted items and how easy it is to destroy potential email records. 

Microsoft must have listened because the new version Exchange 2010 includes substantial improvements to the “dumpster” and deleted item behavior and closed the potential “leak” for eDiscovery.

The new Exchange 2010 dumpster is a complete new design.  Here is a link if you want the complete story.

To fully understand email discovery with Microsoft Exchange Server, you need to understand how the deleted item process works.  Here is a quick summary.

For Exchange 2007 and earlier versions, deleted email is moved to the deleted folder.  Once the deleted folder is emptied, the email moves into a system folder called the “dumpster”.  Email remains in the dumpster for a time determined by the Admin.  Typically this is 7 days.  After 7 days, the email is permanently removed from Exchange.

Employees at Boston’s City Hall are in big trouble with email according to this recent article in the Boston Globe. It seems the common practice is to delete email daily to reduce mailbox load. At least this is the reason provided by one employee. But who forgot about public record laws which require all city email to be saved for two years?

Well … I needed a catchy title to grab your attention here.  By 2010 80% of organizations is expect to be using SharePoint internally which is starting to bring challenges for maintaining it. 

The distributed nature of SharePoint allows for almost unlimited storage growth resulting in SharePoint becoming another dumping ground, just like Exchange and Public Folders became in the past. 

Exchange 2010 is the next version of Exchange Server and it is due for release the end of 2009 or early 2010.  Exchange 2010 includes many new features and enhancements for archiving. 

Customer have asked me if Exchange 2010 will have all the features they require for email archiving.  I have reviewed the new features of Exchange 2010 and compared them to what I feel are basic requirements for a enterprise archiving solution, and I identified three key areas where Exchange 2010 falls a bit short.

The new administration in Washington DC has signaled that compliance with industry regulatory requirements will be a top priority in the coming months. How does your company prepare for the upcoming, but still unknown requirements?

The first thing you should do is understand where you are lacking when it comes to corporate best practices, especially around corporate data and retention. Do you have a retention policy and schedule? Have you updated it lately? Have employees been trained on it – regularly?

I will be hosting a Bird of a Feather roundtable next week during Teched in Los Angeles, CA .. and it might be nice to meet you if you are going.

BOF02 Regulatory Compliance, Archiving, and Electronic Discovery with Microsoft Exchange Server
Mon 5/11 | 2:45 PM-4:00 PM | Room 501A

Birds-of-a-Feather, Microsoft® Exchange Server

Earlier this week EMC announced SourceOne, which is positioned as the replacement for its aging email archiving product EmailXtender.  For customers considering this software it is important to understand that this is an brand new product that is unproven and offers limited functionality that customers demand and expect in an enterprise class archiving product in this time and day.

SourceOne offers no:

• comprehensive eDiscovery