Email has become a data storage warehouse for many organizations. The size of email stores are growing exponentially. With a number of different regulations trying to cover email and data retention it’s important for an organization to adopt an appropriate archiving strategy. When adopting an archiving strategy there is one main question (and the most important question) that needs answered: Do you go with Software as a Service (SAAS) or an on-premise solution. Below are the four questions I would consider:
- IT Staff – Does your organization have a good in house IT staff to support in house archiving or do you have a trusted VAR like Chi Corporation that can be contracted to keep your in house archiving solution maintained and up to date? If so no problem.
- Customer/Client data – Are there any privacy issues with sending your data off site – how comfortable is your organization keeping their Client/Customer data off site? What happens to your leverage? What’s the intangible worth of that leverage?
- How much will it cost if the organization ever wants all their data back or wants to change archiving solutions?
- Are there any other future considerations to think about?
Many CIOs are buying off on the SAAS (software as a service, cloud model). Sometimes I wonder if it’s just because it’s the current fad. Don’t fool yourself. Even though it is a more balance sheet friendly solution NOW (that’s only smoke in mirrors) consider the following: Once they have all your data you have lost your single most important leverage….your data. Don’t think they have not planned higher revenue after everyone ingests their data! I am not sure if I were a CIO I could sleep at night after putting my company in a position to lose the leverage associated with their most valuable asset, their client and customer data!
After you have turned over all your Customer and Client data it can now be used as leverage against you. What happens when you get 4-5 or more years’ worth of data ingested into their system? They know what costs are, investors and stock holders push for more revenue year after year. If the cost to forklift data from an off-site solution gets high enough (The solution provider controls that) they can charge up to that amount for their off-site storage and archiving rental. The cost could now theoretically exceed that of implementing an in-house solution and it would cost far more to change the model! After all it’s a 3 year contract. What happens after that?
I have found that costs eventually level out and are the same for in house or hosted solutions over the long haul but what you lose is CONTROL! Control over your own Customer and Client data! Sure it’s still yours but how much will it cost to get it back and how secure is it…really? Take a look at what happened to Carbonite.
Chi Corporation can assist in determining which solution is right for you and estimating the costs of implementing an on premise archiving solution.
The bottom line is, if you implement an in-house solution one can always move to an off-site model very easily…..how easily can one switch from a hosted solution to an in-house solution with Petabytes of data? Very expensively! So be sure before you go off-site!
The cost of low end archival storage has been coming down and is now at the lowest cost per Tb ever seen. The costs to implement an on premise archival solutions are lower today than ever before! So if you have the IT staff or trusted VAR and an IT budget why not bring it in house. Creative financing can make any in-house implementation look like OPEX rather than CAPEX on the balance sheet. Every argument for moving to a SAAS archiving model can also exist within that SAAS model. They also have to maintain and upgrade their systems as well. Not to mention ingestion rates will be based on your internet connection, better have a big one.
Have more questions about email archiving? Feel free to email me or call me at 440-498-2300 x243.
-Jeff Sabella, Systems Engineer
