Email use in business is already at record levels, and increasing fast. It is the most used for of communication between people, overtaking the phone by a long way. Email forms a “corporate memory,” a record of how a company conducts business, narratives on how it’s people behave, and a reference for those coming after. Email also forms core corporate knowledge, with messages passing back and forth on how to conduct business, solve problems or instructing new starters.
Despite all that, an email backup strategy is all too often ignored by many companies. Email has a remarkably low profile on the radar of many businesses despite its importance in the running of it. It’s often viewed as a tool that’s “just there,” and used accordingly.
Roughly two-thirds of American workers use email as part of their job function. They average between 60 and 200 work related emails each day. Add non-work related ones to the mix and you have a lot of traffic.
Despite the importance of the part played by email, the messaging systems alone do very little to help business manage data. The latest email systems have archives, and the ability to interact with archive servers, but still offer little in the way of comprehensive email backup.
For that we need a complete email backup strategy. One that incorporates external storage, effective archiving, indexing, security, compliance and resilience. Most of us are aware of the importance of resilience and server backups, but what about security?
Ask any corporate lawyer what their top business fears are, and they will inevitably mention email. It’s a terrific medium for communication, but can easily be used for other purposes. Any email backups need to be stored securely, and free from tampering. With the amount of proprietary knowledge contained in email, it’s a valuable commodity that would soon find a paying audience if it escaped into the wild.
Not only does business have to abide by statutory retention regulations, they have to be able to retain all that information for their own use. With the amount of business conducted via email, contracts passed and agreed, deals done and prices set, there needs to be a secure but accessible record of every single one.
So the imperative is to have a logical, organized and secure email backup system to preserve the functioning of the business. With email serving as the corporate memory and knowledge, it’s too important a resource to be casual about. When email works, its invaluable, when it doesn’t, it can be disastrous.
Not only can business grind to a halt, but important knowledge, contractual information and proprietary data can be lost. For those in regulated industries, it can also mean sanctions from the authorities if email isn’t available for inspection.
Imagine losing your own memory and how it would affect your daily life. Not knowing how to do aspects of your job, or what appointments you have for the next week. Now multiply that by however many employees your company has. How do you think that would affect how you do business?
