Barracuda

Security, Access and Reliability for Cloud-Connected Networks and Applications

ediscovery

The business risks of using personal email accounts

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A customer recently asked us a question that raises some interesting points when individuals use personal accounts such Hotmail or Yahoo for business-related emails:  “When is it OK to use a personal email for business purposes?”

risks to your businessThe short answer is never, but individual proprietors, consultants, can often revert to “personal” email accounts.   The smart ones will set-up a secondary account that reflects their business or business name (virtually all service providers, i.e. folks like Verizon, Comcast, etc. include the ability to create several email accounts at no additional charge).

For larger businesses, the inherent risks along with general availability of mobile email should be enough to preclude using a personal email account for business purposes.   If for example that user is out-of-the-office, they should be able to access their office mail from a smartphone or computer, and this is a far better route than simply resorting to their personal email account. [Read more…] about The business risks of using personal email accounts

Zombie Data … Draining life byte by byte

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Scaring horror fans since the days of black and white, zombie movies have captivated audiences for years and we’re constantly bombarded with new movies, shows and video games featuring them.  Whether you are a fan of this genre or not, the talk of the living dead has now spilled over into the tech world.

zombie data 1

Your organization might have disaster recovery and a secure technical environment that’s protected against a zombie apocalypse, but is the threat already lurking hidden in your system?  We don’t wish to alarm you but zombie data is real and chances are it’s taking up valuable resources and posing risks in your environment even as you read this post…

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Do PST Files impact eDiscovery?

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ediscovery and PST files

What is discoverable when it comes to investigations?

We fielded a recent customer question that made us take another look at what IT organizations need to consider when performing eDiscovery searches or responding to information queries such as Freedom of Information requests.

The question was initially surprising, but when we looked closer, it’s a reasonable one and an area where IT and Legal only intersect when there are problems.

What is ESI?

The term ESI is regularly used in the legal community and is an acronym for Electronically Stored Information – not simply electronically searchable information. The distinction is an important one.

Most legal processes were modelled around paper files – hence the term “discovery.” In 2006 the US judiciary finally addressed burgeoning electronic information discovery, or eDiscovery, by amending the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP) to include electronic information. It should be noted that UK courts incorporated rules to handle electronic discovery some years earlier, but the legal community universally regards ESI as “anything stored via electronic means.”

An important distinction about ESI is that nobody, anywhere, has more granular descriptions on what it is, how it’s stored, etc. In fact, laws and acts and statutes that refer to ESI talk about “preserving” such data and leave the means of preservation up to the holders, i.e. the IT organization.

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Taking back control of discovery

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For any company who’s faced a discovery request – whether it is a public-facing organization with a Freedom of Information request, a business performing an internal investigation, or a company facing a regulatory challenge or eDiscovery request – fulfilling those requests in an efficient and cost-effective manner is a real challenge.

Whilst organizations can prepare ahead of time for discovery by implementing policies to retain information that is most likely to be subject to discovery requests, there is one key aspect that is vital.

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Discovery just got a whole lot easier

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Barracuda’s ArchiveOne product has been available for many years, giving organizations ownership and control over their email and file data, and allowing them to manage this information in‑place wherever it exists across the organization.

ArchiveOne has evolved continuously since the first version was introduced over ten years ago by C2C Systems, and following the recent acquisition of C2C by Barracuda Networks it has become the latest member of the Barracuda product family.  It provides a comprehensive integrated Information Management solution that includes regulatory compliance and data retention as well as capacity management and eDiscovery.

The powerful policy-based approach used by ArchiveOne means that it can locate, discover and search unstructured data such as email in-place wherever it happens to be stored across the business.  For instance, this can be in live mailboxes, in network locations or archives, or even in individual end user PST files, and unlike some other solutions there is no need to archive data first before it can be searched.

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Information Governance – the bottom-up approach

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Information Governance - bottom up approachIn previous blogs we have talked about the confusion between Information Management and Information Governance, and suggested there are two ways in which organizations can approach the task of implementing Information Governance.

We have already explored the traditional top-down approach, and in this blog we will now look at the alternative approach.

Information Governance as a roll-up

The overall objective of an Information Governance initiative is to apply rules and structure to the management of data as information. The bottom‑up approach meets this objective by implementing a series of individual projects or initiatives that can range from simple retention programs to the identification and management of data that can be defensibly deleted.

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IT as a consultant

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IT as a Consultant - the view from AccentureBusiness consulting giant Accenture recently posted a video and podcast of their CIO Andrew Wilson and Managing Director Joe Cheung on how the role of the CIO has been changing within Accenture. What’s interesting about this presentation is that it’s a leading consulting company acknowledging that the very way we approach IT is changing.

We are increasingly finding that IT professionals looking at data driven projects such as archiving, compliance and eDiscovery take on aspects of consulting as they have to consider how these relate to the wider information governance and information management objectives of the organization.

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Finding hiring IT contractors harder and more expensive?

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Expect to pay higher hourly rates and have fewer choice

Rising costs of hiring IT contractorsA trio of recent surveys in both the US and UK underscores something we’ve been seeing at our own customers:  IT contractors are getting more expensive and harder to find.

An already healthy market for IT contractors is getting healthier

First of all, there is a healthy market for IT contractors, who are in somewhat limited supply and hourly rates are reflecting the competitive nature of these positions.  The last half of 2014 and beyond is projected to see continued increases in the use of contractors for critical IT projects.

IT Contractors are getting more expensive and harder to find

Second, those IT contractors are the same ones being courted by service providers, so they are in demand.  IT shops who have deployed cloud services, and expect their cloud provider will now handle the support, have found they are competing with those very providers to hire IT contractors who are “cloud-savvy,” according to FierceCIO.

Contractor UK follows the IT contractor markets in both the US and UK, and says the scenarios are similar.  Companies who tightened their belts during the Great Recession of 2008 are finding they either need to up their game or hire less-qualified, “second-string” contractors who will work for their offered rates.   If those contractors are involved in critical IT projects, the necessary skill levels simply aren’t there and those projects are in jeopardy.

The situation isn’t projected to change anytime soon.  Computerworld reported on several surveys in a recent article, one indicating that almost 50% of the companies surveyed planned to hire IT contractors in the coming year, and another that the percentage of contract workers in the IT departments at some firms is at a record 17%.

How can companies avoid being affected?

Of course, the obvious answer which few managers want to hear is plan to pay more for IT contractors.  But companies can do simple, smart things to avoid wasting valuable IT resources on non-valuable projects.

We see IT organizations throwing dollars into a few areas they could totally avoid:

  1. Help Desk calls ref PST files – PST files are archaic and no longer needed.  At some companies they account for 15% of all help desk calls.  If you are stretched thin for customer support (and who isn't?), you can free up a lot of hours by mounting a PST elimination project that will pay for itself over and over again.
  2. Non-core IT tasks – having IT staffs do eDiscovery or eDisclosure collections ends up an iterative task and legal teams rarely get what they want on the first try.  If you deploy an advanced search product on top of your archiving or information management system, the legal department itself could do some if not all of this collection and be happier with the results (not to mention freeing up IT staff for more urgent projects).
  3. Exchange migrations – Exchange 2013 is well-established, and Exchange 2003 is obsolete anyway – meaning if you’re on 2003 or 2007 you’ll be migrating to 2010, and lots of 2010 users are looking at 2013 or Exchange Online.  Big mistake not to undertake an archiving project first:  we see companies who decide to do that after migrating wasting time and resources migrating mailboxes full of junk that they end up deleting afterwards.
  4. Excess legal discovery – we could write a whole book about this, but companies who “save everything” end up “discovering everything,” and can spend millions of $ (or £) reviewing emails that should never have been saved in the first place

Cost of Hiring IT Contractors is rising

It’s always easy to look in hindsight at what IT organizations do, but the reality is that IT is a complex and rapidly changing landscape.  One thing seems clear, and that is that the latest recession “strangle-hold” which was placed on IT wages is easing up.  Firms need to re-evaluate their expectations, be prepared for the consequences, and reconsider implementing those back-burnered projects that would ease their overall tech burdens.

 

2014 Information Management Predictions – Mike Taylor

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The final of our series of 2014 information management predictions from our resident industry experts, we asked the executive team at C2C Systems to provide their top predictions for enterprise information and email management in 2014.

Mike Taylor, Vice President of Americas

Vice President of Americas, Mike Taylor

Mike Taylor joined C2C as VP of Sales in November 2009. Before joining C2C, Mike was VP of Worldwide Sales at nTAG Interactive, where he led the sales and business development teams from 2005 to 2009, growing sales revenue 600% during that period.

 

Mike Taylor's 2014 Information Management Predictions 

1.  Trouble ahead for obsolete and end of life email archiving platforms

End of life and obsolete email archiving platforms such as Zantas/EAS, RISS, IAP and Mimosa will cause Enterprise Customer’s pain, money, and time as they struggle to move data from these platforms.  They will need to rely on new vendors to provide products and services to take them into the next century.

2. Will Exchange Public Folders disappear or are they too important for large customers?

Exchange Public Folders have been rumored to have been phased out for many years.  But a number of large organizations rely on them for important business processes that are not easily migrated to SharePoint.  Companies will look for solutions to move data easily and effectively from Public Folders, while maintaining the metadata and integrity of that information.

3.  Exchange Migration to 2013 will be slower than anticipated

Enterprise customers will put migrations to Exchange 2013 on hold as they consider moving to Office 365, Google or other Hybrid options.

4. Reducing the cost of ediscovery and FOIA requests

Enterprise customers that experience frequent litigation have become “wise” to the costs incurred here and will look to reduce these costs by bringing processes in house in 2014. Public entities, like state, county and local government have had the same experience with Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests.  Solutions that can help ease the pain of producing emails and documents will be in high demand.

MORE ABOUT MIKE TAYLOR

Prior to joining nTAG, Mike was VP of Sales at ReefEdge Networks, an early entrant in the wireless LAN switch market.  Mike has also held sales leadership positions at InBoxer, Polycom, iBasis, Axis Communications, and Intranets.com. Mike began his sales career at Sprint Business. Mike holds an MBA from Babson College’s F.W. Olin Graduate School of Business and a BA from Bates College. In 2011, he was promoted to VP of Americas.

2014 Information Management Predictions – Rich Turner

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The third in a series of 2014 information management predictions from our resident industry experts, we asked the executive team at C2C Systems to provide their top predictions for enterprise information and email management in 2014.

Rich Turner, Vice President of Business Development and Strategic Marketing

Vice President of Business Development and Strategic Marketing, Rich Turner
Rich Turner is the Vice President of Business Development and Strategic Marketing for C2C Systems, tasked with identifying and developing new market opportunities for C2C’s information management and archiving systems with an emphasis on OEM opportunities and the legal community …

 

Rich Turner's 2014 Information Management Predictions 

1.  Discovery requests in the UK 

New eDisclosure regulations will take force in the UK, which will require more up-front involvement in discovery by participants; in the US, new FRCP regulations will ease spoliation concerns but eDiscovery volume will continue its current exponential increase.

2. Discovery in the US

In US, FOIA requests will increase substantially, and penalties will begin to be levied on organizations who do not achieve mandated time frames.

3. Office 365

Microsoft will continue to push Office 365 but for mid-size and larger organizations will provide self-hosting options – i.e., Office 365 will offer a rental model not just the current “hosted” model.

4. Google

Google will continue to gain market share for Google Apps and for Chrome but will do so at “firesale” prices.

5. Blackberry and Apple

Blackberry/RIM will fold and be acquired by Apple who will leverage their OS/10 for secure installations (i.e., phone information which is not shared with Intelligence Agencies).

 

MORE ABOUT RICH TURNER

Prior to joining the C2C Team, Rich was Vice President of Content Analyst Company, where he helped take a start-up search software company to a leadership position in several vertical markets.

Rich has also served as Vice President of Eastern Region Sales at Partminer Inc., Vice President of Business Development for Eventective, Inc., and Managing Director of Softbank Content Services’ European division (which is now part of A.C. Nielsen).linkedin

Rich holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature from the University of Bridgeport, and a Master’s Degree in International Business from Columbia University.