Regulatory compliance requires that various historical records be retained while current conditions demand efficient and secure remote access. Thus, organizations with legacy archiving systems reaching end of life or that lack modern functionality should acquire the best cloud archiving solution to meet those requirements.
There is no question that a cloud archiving solution saves in systems and storage costs over the on-premises variety. Add in the benefits of immediate scalability, availability, increased security, and disaster recovery, and cloud archiving develops a compelling value proposition.
But which cloud archiving solution? In this post, we consider eGovernance Cloud and the factors of Total Cost, Efficiency, Portability of Data and System Management.
Total Cost
With a low monthly fee, eGovernance Cloud is comparable in cost to Microsoft Archiving, which charges per user. However, it comes with a more advanced, easy-to-use search engine and superior eDiscovery.
Built on Azure Cloud Services, the eGovernance Cloud requires no administration, resulting in less IT overhead and lower overall costs. Automated, redundant storage and backup procedures protect data integrity.
It also works with multiple local and cloud data sources. Plus, its quick search ability and open architecture save expensive resource time while making archived data easily exported or migrated.
Efficiency
eGovernance Cloud is far faster and simpler to use than other solutions, like Microsoft 365 archiving. Unfortunately, Microsoft 365 has added a great deal of complexity and therefore effort and time to search for data.
By comparison, the search and export procedures for eGovernance Cloud take just one half to a quarter of the time required by other systems, potentially saving hours. Users rapidly and efficiently respond to eDiscovery requests. They search, review, and quickly reduce the resulting content to just the relevant records.
With Advanced eDiscovery in Microsoft 365, the content you select must be indexed before performing eDiscovery actions. Selecting and indexing the data takes time. Then you must add the data to a review set before it can be analyzed, reported, and exported. The extra steps add 2-3 hours to the procedure.
eGovernance Cloud eDiscovery data stays indexed and ready to search with no re-indexing required. Users simply enter the search criteria and get results immediately.
This allows auditors and others to perform quick pre-searches of data before conducting a formal eDiscovery case. Or they can easily determine what content is available before investing much time into the process.
Data Portability
The main problem with most cloud archiving solutions is that they hold you hostage. Almost all competing systems make it difficult to move your data once it resides in their cloud. Since they don’t allow third party access to their systems, organizations are forced to pay exorbitant fees for extraction or manually extract data based on the limitations imposed by the solution.
The eGovernance Cloud philosophy is that the customer owns the data, we are simply custodians. Built around open standards, eGovernance Cloud stores documents in an industry standard XML format.
eGovernance also works with third parties such as Transend and Trusted data solutions to build connections to its data formats. We create useful mechanisms for exporting your data or even transferring it directly into the Microsoft cloud from the eGovernance Cloud.
Monitoring and Management
The eGovernance Cloud offering is supported under eMazzanti’s eCare managed services program. Monitoring all servers, the eMazzanti Network Operations Center issues standard system alerts plus specific application alerts. It also performs:
- Automatic server refreshes
- Automated patch management
- Physical daily data backups
Qualified administrators fully manage archived data, providing continuous review and proactive resolution of issues. This level of attention ensures:
- Authorized and tracked change control
- Full service and availability levels
- No risk of misconfiguration
- No privilege user-triggered data loss
Migrating Legacy Archives to the Best Cloud Archiving Solution
The migration experts at Messaging Architects understand the advantages and disadvantages of cloud archiving solutions. They help business leaders choose the best cloud archiving solution for their organization, either the eGovernance Cloud enterprise package (500+ users), eGovernance SMB package, or another solution.
The Enterprise package offers full archive and eDisovery or compliance plus 24X7 service provided on the full list of features. The SMB package incorporates nearly the same features but with eDiscovery export performed on request.
Furthermore, they come well-prepared to meet the challenges of migrating data from legacy email archiving solutions. Hundreds of legacy and Microsoft 365 migrations and decades of experience with clients of all sizes have streamlined the migration process. They have the tools and expertise to ensure a smooth migration to eGovernance Cloud.
