Archive or Else!

摘要

What's a beleaguered IT manager to do? The myriad e-mail retention laws, regulations and industry policies that have hit the books over the past few years mean everybody is looking over your shoulder-and we don't mean just the suits. Your company is vulnerable to scrutiny from any ex-employee or customer with a grudge and a few bucks to start legal proceedings. And the U.S. government has signaled it's serious about enterprises maintaining legal documents that just happen to be in e-mail form-in February the SEC levied fines totaling $2.1 million against J.P. Morgan Securities for failing to produce all e-mail requested during an inquiry. The company blamed lost and damaged backup tapes. We bet the IT guy responsible for those tapes wistfully recalls the days when archiving meant sunless rooms packed floor to ceiling and wall to wall with cardboard records boxes. Life was simpler then—an intern and a shredder could wipe out stacks of ill-considered internal memos. The advent of electronic records-keeping and digital imaging means today's archives—in theory, anyway—are easier to use and, in terms of space usage and search capabilities, more efficient than those of our not-so-distant past.