Growth in overall email volume (driven by more sophisticated spamming attacks), the need to filter out malware, and ensuring suitable content for purpose means that we now must re-address how we view email within the organization.
June 2006BUSINESS INSIGHTS Contacts: Email as Intellectual Property The need for suitable management Clive Longbottom Quocirca Ltd Email is now more important to companies than ever - sensitive information is Tel +44 118 948 3360 committed to email both inside and outside of the organisation. However, growth in Clive.longbottom@quocirca.com overall email volume, driven by more sophisticated spamming attacks, as well the need to filter out malware and to ensure content is suitable for purpose means that we now must re-address how we view email within the organisation. MAIN POINTS . Email's importance continues to grow The use of email has moved from simple interpersonal communications through to widespread financial and other sensitive information exchanges. . Email volumes continue to grow Spam email continues to evolve, and volumes are growing strongly. Tools to manage the amount of email entering the company will provide benefits to users in having fewer emails to read, less security issues around malware, and multiple storage benefits. . Although storage is cheap, storage management is not Governance is moving towards a view that once information hits an organisation's network, it must be stored for audit purposes. Therefore, spam and other content filtering tools must be utilised to minimise the storage of non-required (and possibly harmful) content. . Email downtime is no longer an option Email is now a mission critical service within the organisation. Issues with system patching, upgrades and migration means that a company suffers. Having the capability to manage upgrades and migrations successfully can keep users connected - and therefore working. . Information must be secured leakage of information to outside parties needs to be controlled. Here, we are not only looking at employees wilfully sending intellectual property to competitors, but the accidental sending of information to the wrong email address, and the sending of inappropriate content to people both inside and outside of the organisation. REPORT NOTE: . New tools are required to manage today's email services This report has been written The base offerings from the main email systems do not meet the needs of today's independently by Quocirca businesses. Therefore, companies must look to other vendors to ensure that they Ltd to address certain issues have the correct means of managing their communication and collaboration needs. found in today's . Mobility is now a key driver of email usage organisations. The report A large proportion of most organisations are now mobile - and email availability and draws on Quocirca's accessibility for those on the road is a critical factor in many companies' success in extensive knowledge of the the market. The creation of a suitably scalable and resilient communications technology and business platform has to be high up on any organisation's priority list. arenas, and provides advice on the approach that CONCLUSIONS organisations should take to Most companies started utilising email over 10 years ago, and many have let its usage evolve create a more effective and in a relatively uncontrolled manner. The workloads being put on today's messaging backbones efficient environment for means that organisations need to review how their email systems are managed - and look for future growth. tools to increase stability, resilience and response, while filtering out malware and inappropriate content. Also, where email is being utilised for the exchange of sensitive information internally or externally to the organisation, the use of secure systems must be looked at. An independent report by Quocirca Ltd. www.quocirca.com Commissioned by Symantec Corporation www.symantec.com
www.quocirca.com Contents It's time to revisit email .............................................................................................................. 3 Email stability and resilience ..................................................................................................... 3 Email accessibility...................................................................................................................... 4 Controlling email growth ............................................................................................................ 4 Email storage and archiving ........................... [download for more]
