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Gordon Biersch Taps Mimosa Systems for Compliance Archiving |
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Dan Gordon and Dean Biersch opened the first Gordon Biersch brewery restaurant in Palo Alto, California, in 1988. Since then they have opened 34 brewery restaurants in 16 western states, including California, Hawaii, Nevada, Arizona, and Washington. Gordon Biersch serves authentic German-style lagers made on the premises. The Gordon Biersch menu consists of appetizers and entrees influenced by a variety of cuisines, all designed to complement Dan’s signature lager beer. Microsoft Exchange is the email application that supports all email communication at Gordon Biersch. Currently mailboxes are hosted on the Exchange Server and support the company’s headquarters and all restaurant outlets. As Gordon Biersch grows and expands, the company adds five new mailboxes for each new outlet.
When the Gordon Biersch Brewery Restaurant Group moved to Microsoft Exchange in 2006, it needed a solution to archive email for compliance. Corporate policy is to store all company email for its employees for seven years. Alex Birnbaum, Senior Director of IT, commented, “Exchange does not provide a solution for compliance. Exchange is a configuration nightmare and it does not index attachments. Furthermore, Exchange does not provide long-term storage of logs or the tools to analyze log file contents. I needed a solution that offered flexibility to comply with regulations today and in the future when they change. I needed a product that could grow and evolve; otherwise, I am no better off than when I started.”
Before installing Exchange Server, Gordon Biersch used PST files to store POP email, and today hundreds of PST files exist that require protection and management. “We have a large number of PST files that we need to archive. Our goals are to better manage our existing PST files by protecting their contents and continuing users’ easy access. If we run into the need to search PSTs for any legal issue, I need to be able to search all PST file contents in the same manner as the rest of the email archive,” said Alex.
In the first year after installing Exchange Server, Gordon Biersch realized the need to reduce Exchange storage without sacrificing user productivity. Mailbox quotas of 250MB are in place for the majority of Exchange mailboxes, 2GB quotas are used for certain executives, and, for a small number of users, no quota limits are used. Alex commented, “In our first year with Exchange, we saw how quickly the mailboxes could grow. The email and attachments that our users were sending and receiving were quickly reaching the quota limits. We required an email archive solution that could help us keep our mailboxes under the quota limits without sacrificing user productivity. It was important that any change to a user mailbox for storage management was transparent to the end user.”
For Exchange data protection, the original plan was to replace traditional tape backup with disk-based data protection and fast disk-based recovery. Alex explained, “We had been running Exchange for only one year, so in this short time, I had not performed an Exchange database or mailbox restore. Nevertheless, I had practiced Exchange recoveries and I was not satisfied with the complexity of the operation and the time it took to perform a basic database or mailbox recovery. I was looking for a data protection solution for my Exchange Server that was disk-based and offered fast recovery.” Gordon Biersch found the archiving solution they were looking for in Mimosa™ NearPoint™ for Microsoft Exchange Server.
Gordon Biersch undertook the Mimosa NearPoint installation, and overall it went very smoothly. Alex commented, “The total NearPoint installation took just two days, which was a very pleasant surprise. In fact, we could have completed it in just one day if we had wanted. The installation began with the server setup and configurations, followed by the installation of the NearPoint software. I was assisted by a technical consultant from my local reseller, but the install process was actually so easy that I could have done it myself. The NearPoint documentation was very complete and gave detailed instruction for every step of the process.”
One of the advantages of the NearPoint installation is that no agents are required on the Exchange Server. NearPoint also does not require Exchange journaling for compliance archival. “I was very pleased that NearPoint did not interfere with my Exchange Server. It did not require any agent software on Exchange, nor did it require Exchange journaling. I ran the first application shadowing job and NearPoint quickly went to work building my archive. Once the archive was completed, I configured my retention policies for seven years for each mailbox. Once again, all the NearPoint setup and configuration tools were very easy to use—they made managing the system a snap,” said Alex.
A standard feature of NearPoint is Self-Service Access™ for end users. Using the Microsoft Outlook® (or OWA) client interface, end users can access and search their personal email archives. Lost or deleted email can be found quickly and restored to Exchange, if enabled. “I rolled out Self-Service Access to my administration office and I will roll it out to my remote store users in the near future,” explained Alex. “So far my users have told me that they find the Outlook self-service archive search tools very easy to use. This feedback is great and gives me confidence to roll it out to all my users. NearPoint has met one of my key requirements, which was to perform in a transparent manner to my end users.”
“Now that NearPoint is installed and running with the seven-year retention period set, I have met my corporate policy requirements.”
For managing Exchange storage, a NearPoint standard feature called Mailbox Extension is used. Mailbox Extension removes attachments from Exchange Server based on administrator-defined policies for age and size. Users access email and attachments as they normally do using Outlook (or OWA). The attachments are retrieved from the NearPoint archive and displayed together with the original email. “I implemented the NearPoint Mailbox Extension, or what I call the ’stubbing’ policy, and was able to reduce my mailboxes by 50 to 75 percent. The results were fantastic,” explained Alex. “Not only can I add more users to Exchange without adding more expensive storage, but I am confident that my existing users will not outgrow my Exchange storage. The storage reduction has also reduced Exchange backup times by 60 percent, which was another bonus.“
Legal discovery is performed using standard NearPoint search tools that auditors can access via Outlook (or OWA). NearPoint can perform full-text searches of all mailbox contents, including email, calendars, contacts, notes, and tasks. Search results can be sorted, displayed, and exported in PST files for legal review. “No legal searches have been performed yet, but if they occur, I am confident that I can perform them quickly on NearPoint,” said Alex. “In particular, with my PSTs now centrally archived, I can search their contents quickly. In the past, I had to search each PST file individually.”
“NearPoint was the only archive product that archived the complete mailbox, including calendars and contact information,” Alex continued. “This capability was very important for my company and a requirement to meet corporate policy.”
“My compliments to Mimosa for its great product,” concluded Alex. “NearPoint provided me with all the essential tools I needed to remain in compliance with corporate policy and regulations, and it also helped me with the day-to-day operational challenges I faced in managing Exchange.”
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