When Time (or Seconds) Matter in Searching Your Data

Data Compliance & Governance October 16, 2024
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When people ask you the question “got a couple of seconds?”, they almost never mean it literally. However, when it comes to searching your enterprise’s data, taking that question literally may be the key to responding to discovery requests in a timely manner.

You're probably not surprised to hear that most data within organizations is stored in the cloud today. In fact, 96% of companies are using at least one public cloud, and 60% of business data is now stored in the cloud. On average, workers use 36 cloud-based services every day, and the average enterprise uses 1,295 cloud services.

Chances are, your organization is one of those that is using the cloud, probably on an increasing basis. In fact, your organization may be using Microsoft 365 Purview or Google Workspace for everything from email to office files and much more. And you probably think those platforms are suitable for getting your data out when you need it. But, in many cases, they may not be.

The Importance of Email Journaling

While we're seeing much more evidence in eDiscovery coming from other ESI sources like Slack, Microsoft Teams, and from text messages stored in mobile devices, email is still the most likely source of responsive ESI in litigation today. After all, email remains a dominant communication tool in the business world, with the average employee sending and receiving an average of 126 business emails per day. As you can imagine, those emails add up quickly! The ability to manage that email effectively is key to being able to respond to litigation requests in a timely manner, especially when your organization has a lot of litigation to address.

Email journaling is a process used in the management of electronic communications where a copy of every email sent and received by selected email accounts is collected and stored in a separate, secure location. This is typically done to ensure compliance with legal, regulatory, or organizational policies regarding record-keeping and information management. Here are some key benefits and uses of email journaling:

  • Data Retention: Journaling helps organizations maintain a record of all electronic correspondence over time, which can be crucial for historical reference or legal compliance.
  • Compliance: Many industries are subject to regulations that require the preservation of electronic communications for a certain period. For example, financial institutions in the United States must comply with regulations from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) regarding the retention of emails and other communications.
  • Security: By storing a copy of all emails, organizations can safeguard against data loss due to accidental deletion or malicious attacks. It serves as a backup that can be critical in disaster recovery scenarios.
  • Monitoring and Analysis: Archived emails can be analyzed to detect patterns that may indicate unethical or illegal activities, such as data breaches, fraud, or harassment within the organization.
  • eDiscovery Response: Email journaling facilitates eDiscovery for legal matters. Should an organization face litigation, having a comprehensive, easily accessible archive of emails can simplify the process of providing evidence.

Email journaling has become a critical component for businesses that need to ensure the integrity, availability, and confidentiality of their email communications for compliance, monitoring, security, and eDiscovery purposes.

Why Not All Email Journaling Solutions Are the Same

Assuming we’ve convinced you of the benefits of email journaling, the next logical question is what email journaling solution should your organization be using?

If you're using Microsoft 365, you might be inclined to use that solution for email journaling. However, just as Microsoft 365 Purview has several existing limitations regarding eDiscovery, those limitations also impact the ability to conduct searches and identify potentially responsive emails quickly. Not to mention that even getting to indexing when the maximum advanced indexing throughput is 2GB per hour makes it difficult to get started, much less retrieve emails quickly when litigation deadlines are looming.

Got a Couple of Seconds?

That’s why we asked the question at the beginning of this post – “got a couple of seconds?” While that question is almost never asked literally, it can be asked literally when talking about Veritas Alta™ Archiving. Why? Because customers of Alta archiving & Veritas Alta™ eDiscovery can expect search results in two seconds when searching journaled email archives. That’s not just an idle promise – it’s actually in our Service Level Agreement with our customers.

Veritas Alta archiving also helps you:

  • Preserve email and 120+ other content types by policy as journaled records in a high-availability repository, protected against unauthorized or accidental deletion.
  • Classify content and identify the most important items to reduce risk, increase supervision, and improve eDiscovery review and monitoring efficiency.
  • Confirm that retention and storage practices comply with applicable laws and surveillance.
  • Ensure the defensibility of your eDiscovery practices.
  • Provide rapid search, legal hold, case management, and eDiscovery workflows to reduce costs and improve the productivity of IT and litigation support staff.
  • Transition from CAPEX to OPEX accounting with subscription licensing to stabilize archiving costs, regardless of data growth.

Conclusion

Litigation deadlines are typically unmovable, which means you can’t afford to miss them. While your organization might be inclined to use the email journaling capabilities associated with M365, you may pay the price when struggling to meet your discovery deadlines. Failing to meet deadlines can lead to sanctions in your case.

No matter how busy you are, who doesn’t have a couple of seconds to perform an eDiscovery search? The ability to find potentially responsive emails quickly is more important than ever. Regardless how many other sources of ESI become important, email has continued to be the “go-to” resource for most evidence in litigation. Consider using an email archiving and journaling solution that supports your discovery needs and streamlines the process of identifying email evidence in your cases.

For more regarding how Veritas Alta™ can support your Archiving needs, click here.

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Irfan Shuttari
Director of eDiscovery Strategy, Product Management
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