The Benefits of Archiving Emails

There were more than 281 billion consumer and business emails sent per day in 2018, and this figure is expected to rise to 333 billion by 2022. Every business relies on email; whether it’s for internal communications, client contact or lead generation, email is an invaluable tool. However, the more emails being sent and received, the slower the mail server, but deleting these emails without any backup or records may result in legal problems should you need to show 100% true and original records in the event of litigation.

It’s no secret that the value of email has grown significantly and a company should always be able to find important emails with ease. This is where email archiving comes in. The archiving takes place as the email is being sent or directly from the email application itself and is then indexed in the cloud or onsite. There are numerous reasons why a business should choose to archive their emails – we’ve put together just a few benefits of archiving emails below.

1. Reduce your storage needs and cost

Due to the sheer number of emails sent on a daily basis, the amount of server space you need to store emails can quickly accelerate. Reduced server space can mean increased costs (as you may need to upgrade your storage requirements) or poorer performance. Yet, emails are crucial records of communication – between employees, customers and prospects – which you wouldn’t want to simply delete. Email archiving systems give you the best of both worlds, by reducing the amount of email storage you need while simultaneously keeping your important business data secure.

2. Stay compliant

A trusted and secure email archiving system needs to be in line with rules and regulations across the globe. From retention legislation to staying GDPR compliant, when it comes to personal information being stored, there’s a good chance you’ll come across overlapping rules about what can and cannot be done. Email archiving solutions like Cryoserver are compliant with regulations across the globe, and store emails securely and safely. Alongside this, all emails are easily retrievable for restoration or deletion. You can find out more about email compliance here.

3. Accelerated search capability

A decent email archiving system should offer an advanced search and retrieval function that will allow users to search using the following:

• Email address(es)
• Attachment name
• Keywords within emails and attached documents, also including:
  • Typos
  • Words that “sound similar”
  • Spelling stems
  • Proximity words
  • Phrases and other combinations of terms
• Different date and time ranges

This, in turn helps to reduce the time it takes searching for and sifting through the many emails your business receives every day.

4. Disaster recovery

Every business is at risk of losing data, whether it’s through a cyber attack, system failures or onsite problems. Should this happen, you don’t want to lose all of the information stored within your archive. Email archiving gives you the benefit of being able to recover your entire company’s email history at the touch of a button. This, in turn, helps you to stay GDPR compliant as well. Besides disaster recovery, email archiving also acts as a business continuity tool as well. Whenever your email services such as Office 365 are down, you can still send or receive emails; never miss an important email or order by simply having an email archiving solution in place.

5. Improved email management

Many SMEs rely on their staff to archive and manage their own emails, and while this isn’t necessarily a bad thing to do, there’s a risk that your employees will be spending more time storing and managing their inbox than necessary. This has a clear impact on their workload and reduces overall efficiency. Email archiving does this mundane job for you, so that your colleagues don’t have to spend their valuable time archiving their emails, while also drastically reducing the risk of human error.

6. Email archiving is tamper-evident

A tamper-evident email archiving solution is crucial for compliance, and while employees should be able to retrieve and search for emails within the system, no one (not even the IT department) should be able to remove or alter any emails from the archive. A reliable archiving system will have a tamper-evident log that records who reads what in the archive and when they read it.

If you want to be GDPR compliant and run smooth business operations, an email archiving system is vital. Company critical information often exists solely on email – it is crucial that you don’t lose it. Whether you want a bespoke onsite archiving system or a cloud based solution, you’ll find the right one to suit the requirements of your business. Get in touch with Cryoserver today to learn more about the benefits of archiving emails and to find the perfect email archiving system for your business.