Users can bookmark the web link and search all of their archived mail through their web browser, downloading any attachments they need from the archive as compressed. The message header remains in the mailbox in a folder created for archives in the Outlook client, along with a web link to Backup Exec Retrieve, Symantec’s self-service application that lets users get to both files and e-mail that have been archived. That doesn’t mean that the user can’t get to the message when it’s needed, however.
Once the message has been successfully archived, the software removes the e-mail message’s contents and attachments from the mail server’s storage. E-mail is pulled straight from the system backup for archiving, rather than requiring another process, and is selected based on policies set by the administrator. The main advantage of Backup Exec 2010’s archiving option for users is that they don’t have to do anything for it to work on the client side. The software manages archives and pushes them off to lower-cost storage, giving users access to archived e-mail without taking on additional software products and training additional administrators. The add-on to Backup Exec 2010 offers an easy way to back up a small to midsize organization’s e-mail. That’s where Symantec’s Backup Exec for Exchange Mailbox Archiving Option comes in. But for small to midsize operations, these tools are too expensive and require integration that might be beyond the scope of smaller IT departments. Attachments and their many revisions can consume massive amounts of server and client disk storage, and legal requirements for retention can make managing storage even more complex.įor larger organizations, there are enterprise-class tools to tackle storage management and archiving for e-mail, including document archiving and management systems that connect into the enterprise e-mail system. Collaborative applications such as SharePoint are popular today, but the reality for most IT departments is that e-mail remains the center of most organizations’ workflows.