Mimecast Cloud Archiving Service for Microsoft Lync Instant Messages

Mimecast Ltd. has launched its Archiving for Microsoft Lync Instant Messages (IM), a cloud-based archive for sync IM, as well as the files, presentations and whiteboards that have been shared or transferred using Lync.

The service ensures IM conversations and files are archived on Mimecast’s cloud service and available to the organization for search and export in the event of an e-discovery or compliance requirement.

IM within organizations is growing in popularity and according to Microsoft 90 of the Fortune 100 currently use Lync IM. Organizations recognize the need to archive their email for discovery and compliance purposes but often don’t think of IM in the same way and many are failing to archive this despite its growing use and popularity with employees.

This makes archiving this additional data secure without the need for more hardware and associated cost on the network. Also search and statistics are available to administrators through their Mimecast online console reducing e-discovery complexity.

Engin Yilmaz, product manager, Mimecast, says: “It’s great to see that more organizations are using Lync for communication and to improve end-user productivity. What is concerning though is that many of them do so without recognizing they need to archive the IM conversation just as they do other electronic conversations like email. Also some of those that have actually considered archiving have chosen solutions that create more work for their IT administrators, add yet more complexity to their network, aren’t fully featured, are tough to use and add unnecessary cost to their budget.”

The service complements other Mimecast archiving products for email and files, and uses the administration console to give administrators a unified interface for searches against all electronic conversations, regardless of their format. The synchronization engine periodically checks for messages and sends them to the archive automatically. These features keep the overall cost of discovery down and reduce the risk and complexity associated with searching across multiple data repositories.

Features include:

• Archives peer-to-peer instant messages

• Archives conferences (meetings), which are multi-party instant messages

• Archives conference content, including uploaded content and event-related content (e.g. joining, leaving, uploading)

• Archives whiteboards and polls shared during a conference (Lync 2013)

• Provides a single interface for discovery/ compliance workers and administrators

• Delivers unified search results across Lync IM, email and files

• Search results delivered without necessarily alerting users to investigations

• Integrated in to Mimecast’s Cloud Information Platform