Email recovery? Don't rely on your backup!With each passing day we hear of more and more examples where an emall has been a critical part of an evidence trail. Have you stopped to think about what the implications would be for your organisation should you he required to produce email as evidence. Your first reaction will probably be "It's in the backup". You may be in for a shock! In most organisations the primary role of the email backup is to enable an operational recovery in the event of a system failure. The critical word here is "operational'. The IT department will be protecting the operational integrity of the email infrastructure. They will be taking regular backups so that if necessary they will recover an operational system to a specific point in time. Recovery of an email trail across a period of time is a completely 1) Does The Email Exist In Your System? A person in your organisation sends a defamatory def·a·ma·tion n. The act of defaming; calumny. de·fam  a·to ry adj. emall to a competitor and then
immediately deletes the copy of the email from the sent box and the
deleted items folder In a graphical user interface (GUI), a simulated file folder that holds data, applications and other folders. Folders were introduced on the Xerox Star, then popularized on the Macintosh and later adapted to Windows and Unix. In Unix and Linux, as well as DOS and Windows 3. . One month later you receive a notice of libel libel 1) n. to publish in print (including pictures), writing or broadcast through radio, television or film, an untruth about another which will do harm to that person or his/her reputation, by tending to bring the target into ridicule, hatred, scorn or contempt of from
your competitor citing this email as evidence. You need to see what was
actually sent.
2) Can You Find The Emails? Your purchasing department Noun 1. purchasing department - the division of a business that is responsible for purchases business department - a division of a business firm has been negotiating a vital contract and to speed things up a lot of the negotiation takes place via email. The negotiation is concluded over a period of one month. Two years later the contract is in dispute and a court of law asks for all evidence supporting your claims about the contract. Email is a critical part of your case and you need to find all relevant email. In each of the above scenarios you expect the backup to be your lifeline life·line n. 1. a. An anchored line thrown as a support to someone falling or drowning. b. A line shot to a ship in distress. c. A line used to raise and lower deep-sea divers. 2. . However there is a problem ... 1) Does The Email Exist In Your System? The answer is 'probably not". The person concerned wished to cover their tracks. They took steps to delete the emall record and as it no longer existed in the email system at the time of the next backup, it was not backed up. To find that email will be very difficult. It may exist in a deleted items cache (on a backup) but 2) Can You Find The Emails? The answer is "it depends". Your IT department may well have a policy that says they recycle re·cy·cle tr.v. re·cy·cled, re·cy·cling, re·cy·cles 1. To put or pass through a cycle again, as for further treatment. 2. To start a different cycle in. 3. a. the backup media. They may well keep the last three months' weekly backups, and the last years' quarterly backups. Beyond that the backup media is recycled (i.e. overwritten) to save space and reduce cost. Maybe you are fortunate and the IT policy is to keep all tapes, now the problem turns into something akin to finding multiple needles in multiple haystacks Haystacks can be:
Both of the above scenarios demonstrate that operational back-ups of email, whilst a critical part of the IT infrastructure, fall short in the support of business processes. For the solution to the issues we should look more closely at how terminology often becomes confused. In IT terms the words backup and archive are often used interchangeably INTERCHANGEABLY. Formerly when deeds of land were made, where there Were covenants to be performed on both sides, it was usual to make two deeds exactly similar to each other, and to exchange them; in the attesting clause, the words, In witness whereof the parties have hereunto , often with significant consequences. For example the~ command most closely associated with backup is tar, it is a shortened form short·ened form n. An abbreviated form of a polysyllabic word, as auto for automobile. for tape archive tape archive - tar . But let's look at some definitions * Backup: A spare copy of a file, file system or other resource for use in the event of failure or loss of the original. * Archive: A place or collection containing records, documents, or other materials of historical interest. In both of the scenarios shown above, the way out of the problem is to access a collection of (email) records of historical interest, i.e. an archive. It's time It's Time was a successful political campaign run by the Australian Labor Party (ALP) under Gough Whitlam at the 1972 election in Australia. Campaigning on the perceived need for change after 23 years of conservative (Liberal Party of Australia) government, Labor put forward a we all more clearly understood that 'backup' and "archive' are not the same thing. This way we can reduce corporate risk and as a by product decrease the costs and overheads associated with protecting operational systems. Think, all those daily, weekly, monthly backups. In truth, how much of the reformation Reformation, religious revolution that took place in Western Europe in the 16th cent. It arose from objections to doctrines and practices in the medieval church (see Roman Catholic Church) and ultimately led to the freedom of dissent (see Protestantism). remains unchanged between backups. In the case of email we have historical email (which does'nt change) and new email. The historical email belongs in an archive where it can be preserved for historical access, the new email is part of the operational email system and should be preserved by operational backups. By making this distinction the overheads associated with operational backup can be drastically reduced, and the ability to support business processes regarding corporate record is greatly enhanced. Backup your operational systems, it's vital, but archive your historical records. Two complementary technologies working together to meet the overall business and IT need. www.kvs.corn |
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