1. Determine the features you want in a third party email archiving solution
   Exchange does come with some basic archiving, but there are many strong reasons to add a third party solution. The ability to access archives without needing Exchange provides for continued access to email during Exchange maintenance windows, reduces the load on your Exchange servers, and can offer features that Exchange email archiving cannot –  including tamper proof audit logs, PST migration, and more. Web based access as well as Outlook capabilities make it easy for users to help themselves.
2. Set up your archiving and retention policy
   Work with management, your document retention specialist, legal counsel, and human resources department to establish an archiving and retention policy that meets business requirements, all legal and contractual obligations, and clearly defines retention periods and schedules for destruction of old data. Include provisions for special case exceptions, including legal holds.
3. Determine your storage requirements
   Archiving email can take up significant space over time, but because the access is not as taxing on a server as Exchange, you can use less expensive SATA drives or tier 2 storage on your SAN. Look for email archiving software that can handle compression and single instance storage for attachments to further reduce storage overhead.
4. Choose a solution that supports your requirements without adding load to Exchange
   Exchange email archiving, using the features included with Exchange, stores all emails in an archive mailbox. Consider solutions that minimize the load on Exchange by moving mail completely off the system, but that also fully integrate with Outlook to make it easy for users to find mail within their archives. 
5. Determine whether you want a centralized or distributed architecture
   Even if you have multiple MTAs and/or mailbox servers geographically distributed with your users, email archiving can be set up in a centralized location, making administration and backups easier to manage.
6. Deploy your solution
   Follow the email archiving software vendor’s instructions, paying attention to best practices. Once deployed, test to ensure that you understand how email is handled, and how to access the archives. Set up roles for compliance, auditing, or managerial review as necessary based on your email archiving and retention policy. Don’t forget to migrate mail from PSTs into the archive. This will make email easier to find, reduce the load on systems using PSTs, and remove the risk of data loss due to PST corruption.
7. Set up an audit schedule
   Email archiving is important for business continuity, but can also come into play with litigation. Establish a regular schedule for auditing your email archiving software logs to ensure that everything is being archived in accordance with policy.
8. Monitor the solution
   Users should not notice the email archiving solution is even in place, unless they need to access an email from the archive. Admins should keep a close eye on it, to ensure that any changes in email archiving or document retention policies are applied to the software settings, and that disk space consumption is monitored so that you can add space if needed.
   

Exchange email archiving together with a good third-party email archiving software solution, can play critical roles in the function of your Exchange system, data preservation, and compliance. With a methodical approach that includes the steps above, you can easily add this capability to your systems, improving performance, offering new features to your users, and reducing risk.

This guest post was provided by Ed Fisher on behalf of GFI Software Ltd. GFI is a leading software developer that provides a single source for network administrators to address their network security, content security and messaging needs. More information: GFI email archiving.

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