As the need to retain corporate data has increased to meet regulatory requirements-- and best practice may dictate email meeting certain internal policies-- the very existence of PSTs is putting email more and more "at risk. So what can you do about PSTs?
October 2004 Copyright C2C Systems Disclaimer of liability: While every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this document, C2C Systems assumes no responsibility for errors or omissions, or for damages resulting from the use of the information contained herein. Email Lifecycle Management
Contents: Managing PST Files from Discovery to the Archive......................................1 Contents: .......................................................................................................2 Overview........................................................................................................3 Assessing the Facts.......................................................................................3 Who Needs Quotas? .....................................................................................4 Message Size Reduction - A Continuous Process........................................5 From Personal Stores to Policy Archiving......................................................5 Discovery.......................................................................................................6 Assessing Content in PSTs ...........................................................................7 Archiving from the PST..................................................................................7 Recovering Redundant Space.......................................................................7 Conclusion.....................................................................................................8 Where can I find out more?............................................................................9 Action List........................................................................................................10 To reduce the need to create new PST files................................................10 To manage the PST files you already have .................................................10 Appendix 1: MaX Compression Enterprise ..................................................11 Appendix 2: Archive One Policy...................................................................12 Appendix 3: Active Folders Content Manager..............................................13
Managing PST Files from Discovery to the Archive Page 2 of 13 Email Lifecycle Management
Overview If you're reading this paper, you probably already realize that the Personal Storage Files (PSTs) scattered around your network contain messages and attachments which should really be part of your central information store. As the need to retain corporate data has increased to meet regulatory requirements - and best practice may dictate email meeting certain internal policies - the very existence of PSTs is putting email more and more 'at risk.' So what can you do about PSTs? This white paper outlines some ideas, methods and applications for living with legacy PST files and avoiding the creation of new ones. It will help you: 1) Assess the true facts about PSTs. 2) Help you if you have PSTs. 3) Help you to avoid the need for PSTs in the future.
Assessing the Facts PST files are created by users as a secondary data store to save emails that they wish to retain and refer to later. But why is this necessary when they have access to mailboxes especially designed for this purpose? The usual answer is "quotas." If mailboxes are restricted by size quotas, and users receive a notification that they're reaching the limit, they have a decision to make. Choosing to ignore the alert just provides a short-term breather. The user will soon be unable to send emails, and finally unable to receive emails. The user reaction to hitting mailbox quotas can be alarming. This chart, courtesy of Osterman Research, shows how they cope. Actions taken by Users when they reach their Mailbox Size Quota
I delete email from my inbox and/or foldersI create one or more personal archivesI complain to ITI expand my mailboxI delete all "sent" email with attachments0% 20% 40% 60% 80%Copyright Osterman Research 2003 % of Respondents
Managing PST Files from Discovery to the Archive Page 3 of 13 Email Lifecycle Management The graph shows that decisions can be contrary to e-Policy, best pr... [download for more]
