How contentACCESS can set you up for success
In a world with dozens of potential software solutions, setting up archives can feel overwhelming. Many organizations may decide to forego this process entirely, or rely on native built-in solutions. But quite often, these built in solutions will fail to meet certain business needs. Let’s look at the added value of a purpose made archive:
“You don’t need summer and winter tires…”
One of the common complaints organizations have when discussing the need for an external archive tool is the expense. Third-party archiving tools represent another cost these organizations have to account for – one that they are often unwilling to pay.
Relatively often, the argument becomes that third-party data storage and management tools are irrelevant, because there exist a variety of native options that do “the same thing.” For example, a user of Microsoft 365 may be tempted to use native archiving options from Microsoft. From the perspective of company leadership, they now have an archive – no more problem. The argument is essentially the same as saying “you don’t need winter and summer tires – demiseason ones will do,” that specialty tools are unnecessary because a cheaper generalist option exists.
“…Until the moment it snows”
The issue at hand is that despite the fervent wishes of accounting departments everywhere, specialty tools and specialty needs address aspects that a low-cost generalist tool does not target. This remains true in practically all fields. The generalist option will always be a compromise that does not fully meet any more specialized use case. In the case of archiving, this includes a wide variety of features and abilities.
When discussing using the Microsoft 365 built-in options, there are several key aspects to note. One is that a primary use case for a third-party archive is to account for long term, regulatory compliant archiving – something that built-in options offered by Microsoft’s native tools (for example, the archive folder in Exchange) do not directly address.
Likewise, long-term retention cannot merely be a legal hold that prevents deletion for some unspecified period of time. Among other issues, using legal hold in this way cannot be automatically applied to all users in the domain the way a retention policy can. It becomes a clunky patchwork that attempts to jury-rig existing features to imperfectly meet a business need they were not designed for. Inevitably, this ends up in the best-case scenario costing you more effort and man-hours. In the worst case, it opens you up to risk.
An archive should be a separate system from the primary production system, ensuring security and immutability (both requirements from a legal perspective when looking at some of the most strident data management regulations). Microsoft makes it very clear in the Microsoft 365 Trust Center that you own your data, and their role is to be the data processor only.
Finally, a key data point to look at is Microsoft’s own Shared Responsibility Model. This model governs Microsoft’s relationship with your data stored on their service platforms and the Cloud. Crucially, while they assume responsibility for maintaining things like the service and the hardware side, they do not take any responsibility for the data you store thereon. The Microsoft Service Agreement states: “We recommend that you regularly back up your content and data that you store on the services or store using third-party apps and services” – a careful recommendation that amounts to a tacit admittance they will not take responsibility for anything that can go wrong on the operations side.
Added value above native options
contentACCESS goes above and beyond the advantages of native Microsoft 365 tools, providing among other features
- Transparency
- Long-term compliant archiving
- Searchability and built in discovery tools
- Separation from the live production system and effective siloing
- Storage space savings
This feature set covers the full spectrum of Microsoft 365 data sources (including files, Exchange, Teams and SharePoint) and a multiplicity of use cases not covered by native Microsoft 365 tools.
A solution that does not cover for these use cases (be they a legal e-Discovery case or a regulatory compliance check) is fundamentally playing with the odds and hoping that the dice roll sixes. Choose risk mitigation and a safer path – with contentACCESS.
Your Data In Your Hands – With TECH-ARROW
