E-Mail Archiving for SMBs by PostPath

PostPath, creator of an email and collaboration server that is a drop-in alternative to Microsoft Exchange, launched the PostPath Server Archive Edition. For the first time, simple, inexpensive and efficient email archiving is available to small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) that need to retain copies of some or all of their email communications, but lack the time and resources to implement more complicated and expensive third-party Exchange archiving solutions.

As email has grown to become one of the primary methods of communication for businesses of all sizes, maintaining complete email archives has become increasingly important. This is particularly true for businesses required to comply with regulations such as the Federal Rules of Civil Procedures surrounding eDiscovery (FRCP) – which applies to any U.S. business that finds itself involved in litigation – as well as Sarbanes-Oxley and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).

Today, businesses looking to implement email eDiscovery with Microsoft Exchange face an unpalatable choice. They can implement high-end third-party solutions that interface with Exchange’s Journaling mechanism, but these solutions are expensive and implementing Journaling can cause significant performance degradation. Or they can do nothing and hope that they are not subject to litigation that would force them to cycle back through racks of old backups.

PostPath ‘simple-forward archiving’ solves these problems by creating a simple repository for eDiscovery searches, without the expense of third-party solutions or burdening infrastructure with the performance and management hit of Journaling.

In addition to fulfilling eDiscovery needs, PostPath Server Archive Edition gives administrators immediate access to every old and current message in the system, enabling the fastest and most convenient form of on-demand message recovery. As a result, PostPath Server Archive Edition, when combined with PostPath’s standards-based backup and/or high-availability mechanisms, completes customers’ messaging data protection strategy.

PostPath Server Archive Edition is a complete email solution that is a drop-in alternative to Microsoft Exchange and offers simpler, more affordable, and better performance for email archiving. It is a two-server bundle: the regular PostPath Server plus a second PostPath Server configured to be used as the archive repository. Using its unique simple-forward archiving approach – enabled by its open, flexible architecture – the regular PostPath Server automatically forks emails using its high-performance, secure mail transport agent (MTA) and forwards a copy of each of them directly to the archiving PostPath Server, where they cannot be modified or deleted by users. This all happens transparently without any performance impact and without placing an additional burden on the regular PostPath Server’s email store.

“The ability to track every email that has been sent or received is becoming a matter of critical importance for regulatory compliance and eDiscovery. However, our email system did not include archiving functionality and we needed a cost-effective solution that was easy-to-deploy and manage,” said Jeff Anderson, IT Manager at Integris Credit Union, a full-service financial institution based in British Columbia. “By selecting PostPath rather than Exchange, we were able to avoid the burden of costly licenses, integration work and customization. Knowing that we have a reliable archive solution with responsive support from PostPath takes one more burden off our plate.”

PostPath Server Archive Edition is the latest addition to the PostPath Server family, a line of email servers that are network-protocol interoperable with the Exchange ecosystem including Outlook, BlackBerry, Active Directory and ActiveSync, without requiring cumbersome plug-ins or proprietary middleware. PostPath Server offers superior performance at a fraction of the cost of alternative solutions.

“With regulations such as FRCP eDiscovery, Sarbanes-Oxley, and HIPAA, there has never been a more critical time for companies to address their archiving plans,” said Duncan Greatwood, CEO of PostPath. “But today’s approaches to email archiving have been hard to justify for SMBs. With PostPath Server Archive Edition, we deliver highly-scalable, easy-to-own archiving technology with the affordability and manageability required for mid-sized businesses.”