Email Compliance Regulations and the Importance of Email Archiving and Backup

Email compliance regulations are continuously growing, and therefore, the legal requirements for processing such data are also increasing. Therefore, it is very important for IT decision-makers to address the issue of storing and protecting email data. Backup and email archiving concepts can provide valuable help and should therefore form part of any corporate IT strategy (data security and email management). Global companies must remember that compliance requirements can vary from country to country.

In our blog article, we want to show you how backup and email archiving concepts can be distributed, where the differences between the two procedures lie, and how you can benefit from a professional email archiving solution.

Archiving and Backup: Objectives and Differences

Fundamentally, both backup and email archiving solutions can help a company safeguard business-critical data, making these valuable information permanently usable. However, since both solutions differ in functionality, it is important to understand when and how each should be used. In fact, distributing a backup and an email archiving solution together makes sense.

First of all, the objective of any email archiving solution is to store copies of all emails (including file attachments) in a faithful, easily searchable and permanently usable form for many years. Even if the email server becomes temporarily unavailable, archived emails can still be accessed. For a company, this is especially important when dealing with emails related to preparing, completing, executing, or reversing operations (e.g., invoices, quotes, support inquiries, or appointment requests).

In contrast, the purpose of a backup is to store data (e.g., emails) and systems (e.g., email servers) regularly for a short to medium period of time, thereby providing an instant image of the stored data. This concept allows for copies of all data sets to be created, allowing them to be moved to external storage or a cloud environment. In case of an incident (e.g., data loss due to a system failure or a ransomware attack), the temporary, backed-up data sets can be copied back from external storage. Therefore, backup is primarily a disaster recovery tool.

The following objectives can be achieved through email archiving:

Objective	Email Backups	Email Archiving
Eliminate mailbox quotas
Eliminate PST files
Reduce storage requirements through deduplication and compression
Reduce the workload of email servers and simplify backup and restore processes
Provide fully, tamper-proof, and long-term email storage
Help meet compliance requirements
Help with eDiscovery scenarios
Enable fast searches with full-text indexing of emails
End users: quickly and easily restore lost emails

Fully applicable

Applicable - partially

Partially applicable

Less applicable

Not applicable

9 Benefits of an Email Archiving Solution

Email archiving is an important component to fully benefit from all the significant information contained in emails, and it can provide many benefits depending on the archiving method used.

1. Eliminate Mailbox Quotas

With an email archiving solution, emails can be securely and permanently stored. After this, emails can be automatically deleted from the email server's mailboxes, freeing up space on the server. This also eliminates the need for mailbox quotas.

Backup solutions generally do not provide this advantage because they only create temporary copies of the email server's data on an external storage or cloud environment. In this context, depending on the backup system used, "temporary" means that data can be overwritten or deleted (e.g., in an incremental backup scenario). Alternatively, if the backup file is no longer needed, the data can be completely deleted according to a fixed schedule. Since backups do not fully and permanently store email data, the need for mailbox quotas still exists. Fully utilized mailbox quotas and therefore the necessity to "move" emails (e.g., to external PST files) remain a problem for both users and IT administrators.

2. Eliminate PST Files

PST files are often used to transfer emails from a user's mailbox (e.g., due to mailbox quotas) or to create local copies of emails on a user's computer. The content of the mailbox is manually or automatically (e.g., via Microsoft Outlook's AutoArchive feature) copied to a PST file, then moved to an external storage environment, and if needed, the content can be deleted from the user's mailbox.

Many companies are trying to completely eliminate PST files because they pose certain risks. They are often considered error-prone and inefficient, and they generally take up a lot of storage space. PST files can be easily damaged or lost since they are often spread across various locations on users' computers. This makes backing them up difficult and often leads to the loss of important data. Additionally, PST files cannot be viewed using full-text search functionality and are not tamper-proof.

In this context, email archiving provides critical benefits for IT administrators. Emails are archived in a centrally managed system designed for long-term storage, considering the necessary editing and compliance requirements. This gives IT administrators full control over the archiving process. Since archived emails can be automatically deleted from the email server, PST files become unnecessary as a temporary solution for mailbox quotas. The content of existing PST files can also be centrally archived, allowing end users to easily access them.

It is basically possible to back up PST files, regardless of the archiving method used. However, this approach does not allow bypassing mailbox quotas, making it impossible to completely eliminate PST files.

3. Reduce Storage Needs

Another advantage of email archiving is its ability to deduplicate and compress archived emails, which means the archive uses less storage space.

Additionally, although a backup solution can also compress and deduplicate data (depending on the provider), an email archiving solution has the additional critical advantage of freeing up the email server, as it no longer needs to store emails that have already been archived.

4. Simplify Backup and Restore Processes

After a successful archiving process, applying rules to delete emails from the server reduces the volume of data stored on the server. This can significantly increase the speed of subsequent backup/restore procedures (in case of data loss) and thus significantly reduce downtime for this critical system. Email archiving not only reduces the overall data load on the email server but also increases the performance of the backup process. A backup solution cannot do this by itself. Additionally, in case of an emergency where access to the email server is not possible, the email archive can still be used. In this case, email archiving provides a valuable contribution to an operational continuity scenario.

5. Tamper-Proof Storage of Emails

The primary objective of any email archiving solution is to store email data completely, tamper-proof, and in a form that can be used permanently in the future (see 6. Help with Legal Compliance).

Complete data storage is usually achieved by archiving emails as they arrive or leave the email server (known as a daily log). A backup solution only stores the email server in its current state (a snapshot). Therefore, users can delete email data before a backup is completed or suffer significant data loss for other reasons (e.g., due to a ransomware attack).

Professional email archiving solutions ensure that stored data is "tamper-proof" through encryption, hash value creation, minimizing user privileges, and keeping records of related changes and user activities. Some backup solutions are now also marketed with tamper-proof features, although the functionality varies from provider to provider.

6. Help with Legal Compliance

Depending on the current solution, the complete, tamper-proof, and long-term archiving of email data may be subject to varying legal compliance requirements depending on the country and industry in question, thus helping to meet these compliance requirements.

An important criterion for this is the integrity of the data: with daily archiving, emails are archived as they are received or sent, while a backup usually follows a specific schedule and thus carries the risk of tampering or data loss. Storage policies and GDPR options are supported by most email archiving solutions and actually a number of backup solutions, although in the latter case, configuration options are generally not user-friendly or comprehensive.

7. Help with eDiscovery Scenarios

Outside of Anglo-American jurisdictions, eDiscovery generally refers to the process of identifying, retrieving, reviewing, and exchanging electronically stored information.

Both professional email archiving and backup solutions can assist with eDiscovery scenarios, as they usually provide not only search functionality but also partial recovery and export features. However, it is important to keep in mind that the functions of a backup solution are not as comprehensive as those of an email archiving solution. If PST files contain emails (see also 2. Eliminate PST Files), they are also stored in backups, making eDiscovery scenarios cumbersome and time-consuming. In this case, using a complete email archive that includes the original PST files would significantly simplify the eDiscovery process.

8. Full-Text Indexing for Fast Searches

Some professional email archiving solutions index the content and metadata of archived emails, including attachments. Provided the necessary privileges are granted, this allows end users to search for specific emails on their own within a live system without having to rely on the IT administrator. There are also email archiving solutions that provide this functionality through integration with Office applications like Microsoft Outlook. In some cases, the email archiving solution can even match traditional folder structures from the respective mailboxes, making it even easier to search for specific emails. You can download our information sheet on Search Options in MailStore Server here.

Some backup solutions also offer search options, although these functions are usually reserved for the IT administrator and are limited to certain content and metadata.

9. End Users: Easily Restore Lost Emails

For end users, email archiving solutions offer advantages over backup solutions when it comes to recovery. End users can search for specific emails before initiating a recovery, without needing additional IT capacity. There is no need for the IT administrator to manually search for specific emails in backups and restore them for the user. In contrast, backups generally do not provide direct access to data for end users.

Things to Know: Ensuring Data Privacy

To avoid conflicts with data privacy regulations when archiving incoming and outgoing emails, we recommend that you prohibit the use of personal email services or require employees to use only external email services. This policy can be written in, for example, the company's IT infrastructure guidelines, a contract, an employee consent form, or an individual employment contract.

Conclusion: Email Archiving Is Not the Same as Backup

Email archiving and email backup are two completely different solutions that pursue entirely different objectives. Backups are primarily designed to handle disaster recovery scenarios and store data only for a limited period of time, whereas an email archiving system's job is to fully archive emails and attachments in a tamper-proof, permanently usable form for many years. Incidentally, it is important not to forget that email archives themselves also need to be backed up. In that case, both data backups and email archiving are key elements of the IT strategy for any security-conscious company.

Source: Email Archiving vs Backup – Critical Differences - MailStore