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Archive Accelerator

Catalog: Today’s Card Catalog for Your Enterprise Vault Data

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Introducing the Catalogue 

Imagine walking into an enormous library looking for a book on a particular subject, maybe even a specific book. Where do you start? There are floors upon floors of shelves filled with more books than you can fathom, so you don’t want to wander around aimlessly. You’d be lost for days! Instead, you go to the card catalog – most likely online. The catalogue doesn’t have the content of each book, but rather the metadata of the books to help you find just the one(s) you’re looking for, including the title, publication info, subject, location, etc.  

As the amount of unstructured data continues to grow at an incredible rate, the ability to find data in vast repositories such as Veritas Enterprise Vault becomes more challenging.  IDG believes unstructured data is growing at the rate of 62% per year, and that by 2022, 93% of all data will be unstructured.* At Vault Solutions, we have been building products for over a decade that help deal with this data, and recently we’ve release an important new innovation.  

Our team has developed a new feature in our flagship Archive Accelerator product which allows organizations to do certain searches in seconds instead of minutes.  We call it the Catalog.  Using the Catalog, we can do a query across an entire Enterprise Vault environment which would normally have taken hundreds of searches using the built in Enterprise Vault search engine.  This is not a replacement for Enterprise Vault Search, but a way to take the strain off the Enterprise Vault indexes for certain classes of inquiries, such as finding all messages sent to/from an individual (custodian).  

Examples of queries that can be done with the catalog: 

  • Find all emails sent from anyone to a particular vendor 
  • Find all emails sent to/from an individual (e.g. custodian) 
  • Find all emails sent to/from a department 
  • Find all emails sent between two dates to/from an individual
  • Find all files archived from a particular location 

Scalability 

This Catalog is designed to handle billions of emails and can itemize all messages even in environments with multiple Enterprise Vault servers.   

Currently, the Catalog has been incorporated in our Archive Accelerator Enterprise Search application and is automatically used in many searches that can be accomplished without a full text index. Doing so makes some of the searches go over 10 times faster than before. 

We’ve also tested using the Catalog to place legal holds on data in Enterprise Vault and have shown we can do this more than 50 times faster than using Discovery Accelerator.  Of course, Discovery Accelerator should still be used when the legal holds involve searching the content of messages.  

While the Catalog is an enormous benefit for many applications, it is not a replacement for the indispensable Enterprise Vault indexes, or for Discovery Accelerator.  It doesn’t index the contents of messages or attachments, for example, only the metadata. 

Comparing Enterprise Vault indexes with the Catalog 

When searching Enterprise Vault, there are hundreds of indexes to search through, filled with both email content AND metadata. Part of the speed and efficiency of the Catalog is that there is only one.

Final Catalogue vs EV Indexes Table

So, for any organizations needing a way to quickly search through terabytes of email archived with Enterprise Vault, or a dramatically more efficient way to routinely put email on legal hold for given custodians, the Catalog can provide be a huge advantage.

* Source: darkreading.com

Where In the World? The Latest Data Adventures of Vault Solutions

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It’s already November, and as we got together for our Quarterly Meeting a few weeks ago to recap the last few months and plan for the end of the year, we realized that Dave has been all over the map, literally! Where have his data adventures taken him?

The Latest Data Adventures of Vault Solutions

The Vault Solutions team kicked off the fall with the Veritas Vision conference in Las Vegas. Eight members of our team spent a few days learning about the latest advancements from Veritas, networking with Google and other partners, meeting with clients and resellers from all over, and showcasing our latest product enhancements. It is always a busy and productive time in Las Vegas, and always, we came back to New Hampshire energized by what’s ahead! 

Since then, Dave’s been on the road working directly with clients and partners looking for ways to enhance their Veritas Enterprise Vault deployments, and the team has been hard at work back home. We’ve been continuing our work improving the already fast and efficient performance of Archive Accelerator Enterprise Search, and simultaneously we’ve been seeing increased traction in its adoption. 

One of the places we’re seeing that surge of interest and sales in in South Africa – hence Dave’s travels across the map! Because of local regulations customers are required to keep their data physically in the country.  Vault Solutions has been working with Veritas, their partners and customers to provide a combination of Enterprise Vault (on-premises) and our Archive Accelerator Enterprise Search product to provide a solution similar to that provided by Enterprise Vault.cloud in other countries that have an Enterprise Vault.cloud data center. 

We’re excited to finish 2017 strong, bringing even faster performance to our customers, preparing for new feature releases, and helping our clients around the world keep their data safe, secure, organized, accessible and in compliance with their local regulations.

Custodian Manager Tools: Un-Complicating Data Imports to Discovery Accelerator

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Custodian Manager Tools

Organizations using Veritas Enterprise Vault™ Discovery Accelerator might need to import, synchronize, and map large numbers of custodians into their Discovery Accelerator environment. For them, Vault Solutions’ Archive Accelerator Custodian Manager Tools may be just what they’re looking for to ensure a smooth process. Whether it’s completing a discovery or putting documents on legal hold, many companies need to be able to quickly and precisely retrieve data related to a topic or particular user at any given moment. This means that archived data needs to be organized, on point, and discoverable in its environment – even when that environment becomes complicated due to the process of data importing.

Archive Accelerator Custodian Manager Tools is an application designed to import CSV and XML files containing user account information, aliases, and email addresses using predefined business logic. Imported records are either merged with existing custodian profiles or new profiles are created in the Veritas Custodian Manager database safely and accurately.

Archive Accelerator Custodian Manager Tools Staging View
“Initiating a Manual Import of a Staged Custodian in Custodian Manager Tools”

 

Companies are able to utilize a traditional mechanism to import custodian data to Discovery Accelerator. This is commonly done by synchronizing with Active Directory and IBM® Lotus Notes® and Domino® data. This presents a challenge when there are custodians from other systems that need to be in the new Discovery Accelerator environment: former employees, users that were part of an old email system, and most frequently, data sets of newly acquired or merged companies. In this last scenario, addresses often do not match and need to be mapped to existing addresses to prevent the creation of duplicate data.

Custodian Manager is also flexible enough to work just as well with small environments as it does with enormous ones. Just recently, we imported and merged 136,000 custodian records all at one time – first attempt, with no duplicates. This type of performance provides for fewer business interruptions as user records are transitioned efficiently and effectively.

Choosing a method that is efficient and reliable when importing large amounts of custodian data into the Discovery Accelerator environment is critical to business continuity. To learn more about how Vault Solutions Archive Accelerator Custodian Manager Tools may be the perfect solution to your data mapping challenges, contact us today. We’re always happy to help you find the right solution for your data needs.

Veritas and the Veritas Logo, and Enterprise Vault are trademarks or registered trademarks of Veritas Technologies LLC or its affiliates in the U.S. and other countries. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners.
IBM, Lotus Notes, and Domino are registered trademarks of International Business Machine Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both.

Into the Vault: Archive Accelerator Import

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Archive Accelerator Import

When companies need to import data into Enterprise Vault, at times it requires additional tools to get the job done. Thankfully, Veritas Enterprise Vault has arguably the most extensive API of any major archiving solution.

Initially, Vault Solutions LLC developed the Archive Accelerator Import feature for AVST™ Voicemail Archiving. It was developed with a plug-in architecture, making it easy to snap-in importers for any type of data format a customer might have – without the wait for a new version of Archive Accelerator to be released.

Typically, there are reasons that companies would need to use more than the standard tools: if they’re updating their systems, importing legacy EML or MSG files into Enterprise Vault, or if they are going through a merger or acquisition. In the latter situation, data needs to be moved from one system to the other and the two sets of archived data need to live together under the new organization.

When it comes to legacy data, there are usually other factors at play like file organization and the age of the data. Often the organizations that use Archive Accelerator Import are large. We recently completed a project for a multinational bank,  bringing 40 TB of legacy data into Enterprise Vault.

Archive Accelerator Import can be used to immediately import data from a data source or it can import data on a schedule. It keeps chain of custody information about all items imported and also keeps track of what has been imported to ensure against re-importing the same data. It can be set to automatically delete imported data after a defined period of time.

Archive Accelerator Import has grown over time from supporting AVSTTM Voicemail Archiving to importing many sources of data including EML, MSG, Discovery Accelerator, and others. While no migration is too small, the speed and efficiency with which AA Import completes significantly sized jobs makes it the ideal companion for large companies in need of moving critical data securely.

 

TRADEMARKS. AVST and/or other AVST products referenced herein are either registered trademarks or trademarks of AVST Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries.

What to Love About the VERITAS Enterprise Vault Archiving Platform…If You Don’t Already!

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What to Love About VERITAS Enterprise Vault

When there is a massive amount of data to be managed, any solution that might keep that information safe, secure, and at the ready, sounds like a good idea. However, not all solutions are alike and what’s not so clear is which one is best for your needs.

Are you responsible for figuring out what to do with your organization’s mission-critical information? Do you have to decide to keep or delete it? What’s your retention policy going to be? How do you manage access to it by end users and administrators alike?

When you deploy on-premises with VERITAS™ Enterprise Vault™, in the cloud with VERITAS Enterprise Vault.cloud, or in a hybrid configuration, you retain relevant and meaningful information to meet legal, regulatory, or compliance guidelines.

As an archiving system, VERITAS Enterprise Vault features robust storage, indexing, and retention that rivals any other data archiving platform. We may be a little biased, but here are some of the features that stand out with Enterprise Vault:

  • Storage 
    • Archive data used less frequently, across multiple content sources 
    • Scales to billions of items 
    • Migrate old data to less expensive storage 
    • Single instancing 
    • Compression 
    • Widely supported across most storage platforms
  • Indexing 
    • Robust 64-bit indexing engine 
  • Retention 
    • Set retention policies 
    • Automatic expiration 

Now that we’ve taken a quick look at some of the cool features that make Enterprise Vault stand out, how easy is it to use? Right out of the box, Enterprise Vault has a seamless end user experience, simplified installation, administration, and flexibility that includes:

  • Archiving across multiple content systems 
    • Microsoft® Exchange and IBM® Domino® Email 
    • Windows® File System 
    • SharePoint® 
  • Easy Access to archived information anytime 
    • Microsoft Outlook®/ OWA 
    • IBM Notes®/DWA 
    • Browser Search 
    • Archive Explorer 
    • eDiscovery (Discovery Accelerator™, Clearwell™) 
    • Compliance Accelerator™ (for Broker/Dealer review) 

Enterprise Vault has a vast partner ecosystem that extends the archiving platform. In working with VERITAS (formerly Symantec) as well as our customers, we have been fortunate to build on the platform to help clients maximize the value of Enterprise Vault. Some of the features we’ve built expand upon Enterprise Vault functionality, and are valuable to companies and organizations across many industries, including banking, pharmaceuticals, legal organizations, and more.

Check out more on Archive Accelerator Export and Archive Accelerator Search in our earlier posts. Coming soon to the Vault Blog is more on Archive Accelerator Import as well!

VERITAS, Enterprise Vault, Discovery Accelerator, Compliance Accelerator, and Clearwell are trademarks or registered trademarks of VERITAS Software Corporation or its affiliates in the U.S. and other countries. 
Microsoft, Exchange, SharePoint, Outlook, and Windows are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. 
IBM, Domino, and Notes are trademarks or registered trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both.

Rethinking Data Retention: Maintaining Data Retention Compliance with Veritas Enterprise Vault and EMC Centera

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Rethinking Data Retention

What do consumer product companies, pharmaceutical companies, and big banks have in common with everyone else? Data, of course. However, there are some distinct differences when it comes to the quantity and handling of that data. When you become a large organization, you often have to navigate complex governance issues. What data do you have to keep? Where do you keep it? And of course… for how long?

It’s this last question (how long?) that organizations may not know the answer to when they’re first setting up Enterprise Vault (EV) for their email or file system archiving. Often it’s easy and convenient to go with the out-of-the-box default configuration. This is an all too common occurrence because creating policy around data retention takes time. But archiving data is critical and if large companies waited on policy, data would run amok! So, using the default settings might seem like the safe option. The default retention for Enterprise Vault is set to forever, meaning you may not be able to purge old or unwanted data if it was stored on a Centera.

There are three types of EMC Centera used to retain data: Basic, Governance Edition, and Compliance Edition Plus. Let’s look at a few scenarios to see how Enterprise Vault could be configured to work with these different Centera models to retain data, and how some organizations are using our recently enhanced Archive Accelerator Centera Retention Manager to properly set the retention on the Centera before turning on storage expiration in Enterprise Vault.

Scenario 1: Default Retention Category set to Forever

Some large companies use Centera in Governance Mode. At the time of archiving they discover that the data stored in Centera is set to be retained forever. Years later they refine their retention requirements and determine that they can start expiring data. However, they find that they can’t change the data retention settings on the Centera for data previously archived. This becomes both a space and legal issue. No longer required to legally retain all that data, companies need to purge it to avoid unnecessary legal exposure. Also, freeing up expired data can greatly reduce their storage requirements.

Enterprise Vault comes with a single, predefined Retention Category called “Default Retention Category”, which is set to forever. This can be changed. However, if the setting is changed after data is archived, Centera will still enforce the original “forever” retention setting.

Default Retention Category Image

Here is where the Archive Accelerator Centera Retention Manager comes into play. When Centera is in Governance mode, Centera Retention Manager can use the Audited delete feature native to Centera, to reset the retention in such that data will be expired based on the updated Enterprise Vault retention settings.  For example, if the retention policy for the Default Retention Category was changed from “forever” to 6 years it would then be possible to start expiring data that had been archived for 6 years.

Scenario 2: 0 Retention not set on Centera

In some situations, such as when EV is configured to not transfer its retention parameters to the Centera, no retention setting is set on the items on the Centera. Although EV is set to keep data for a certain number of years at the time the data was stored on Centera, the data is stored with a zero (0) retention policy. This leaves data vulnerable to accidental or malicious deletion, a situation most wish to avoid.

Vault Store Partition Properties

The newest feature in Archive Accelerator Centera Retention Manager enables these customers to avoid the unintentional deletion of their data already archived in Centera. It does this by effectively increasing the retention of the items already on the Centera to the proper amount of time based on the Enterprise Vault retention category used and the amount of time the item has already been archived.

Centera Reprocess Properties

These scenarios demonstrate the flexibility of the new Archive Accelerator Centera Retention Manager. Retention Manager works with or without the Enterprise Vault Collections feature but companies that have it enabled will see a significant performance gain. It’s possible to change the retention policy on data at a rate of 100,000 C-Clips per hour, which is equivalent to 10 million messages per hour.

More and more companies are finding their retention settings require modification and are looking to Archive Accelerator Centera Retention Manager to help make the changes. If you’re reevaluating your settings as well, learn more about how Vault Solutions’ Archive Accelerator Centera Retention Manager can help.