Comparing On-Premise Hardware and Cloud Email Archiving

There are several email archiving solutions available in the market, choosing a solution that meets the needs of the organization is critical. Emails form a large component of  IT-based processes in an organization, and needs a disciplined and cost effective ‘archiving’ solutions.

Email archiving solutions abundant

The most popular options are a self-contained appliance that is deployed in-house to handle the process of archiving – capturing all emails to an indexed database, making the emails searchable and accessible.

The second option is the cloud-based archiving service offered by some of the largest vendors in the software industry like Microsoft and Google.

The third option is a hybrid solution that requires that hardware and software be joined and managed by an in-house IT team.

Choosing an email solution based on the hardware and costs

Every organization opts for an Email archiving solution that matches their organizational capacities as well as the infrastructure available for the process plus the budgetary limits.

Typical considerations for appliance based solution are:

1. Hardware Specs: Appliances with 500GB to >10TB of storage, backed by Xeon processors and typically 1GB to 64 GB memory.
2. Processing Power: Most appliances run on open source Linux-based software to provide high performance and the ability to process over 10,000 messages in an hour; at an affordable price.
3. Email Traffic: The smaller of these appliances are recommended for SMBs that have less email traffic and the larger high-end appliances will easily support SME and larger with their higher daily email volumes.

Cloud email archiving solutions are typically subscription based. These offerings are often combined with other services such as email and office productivity tools. Most of these solutions are targeted at:

1. Lowering the costs of operating a full-fledged IT facility that includes- costs of electricity, cooling it as well as incidental facility maintenance costs.
2. Improving the recoverability of data. The data is stored in vendor’s ecosystem which is designed and keeping the data secure.
3. Reducing the number of IT staff required, by reducing the in-house complexity.

Conclusion

A comparative study of email archiving solutions is a necessity. The vision of the organization will typically be the determining factor. Organizations need to review all factors from a long term cost perspective, to the accessibility and security of their data to find the solution that will provide the most effective return on investment for their organization.

Email Archiving Appliance Comparison

A complete resource to understand and make an informed decision when researching an email archiving appliance.

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Azam Qureshi

Azam is the president, chief technology officer and co-founder of Intradyn. He oversees global sales and marketing, new business development and is responsible for leading all aspects of the company’s product vision and technology department.