The Importance of Email Journaling for eDiscovery

An organization can lay a foundation for accountability by retaining records of all email communication. There are two primary methods for archiving emails: journaling and mailbox archiving. Email journaling can generate more complete records to allow for faster and more cost-effective eDiscovery. Find out why your organization should consider using Expireon to store and manage communication data.

What Is Email Journaling?

Journaling is a method of backing up all email communications, including sent and received messages. Organizations can store emails for the purposes of internal policy, regulatory compliance or to serve as evidence in support of litigation. Using a cloud-native journaling platform to capture and store emails in a centralized location is the best way to make unstructured data available for timely recovery.

Journaling for emails originated with on-premises Microsoft Exchange servers in the 1990s in response to the evolving regulatory requirements of the Securities and Exchange Commission. While storage demands for email journaling have always been significant, technological developments have altered the ways in which organizations handle communication records.

As more companies transform into the cloud, third-party providers have stepped in to fill in gaps resulting from limited support for this function on the leading cloud-based productivity platforms. Organizations can use Simple Mail Transfer Protocol workarounds and the leading third-party solution to implement this risk management measure.

What Is the Difference Between Journaling and Archiving?

Information technology and legal stakeholders at enterprises are usually the parties tasked with deciding whether to journal or archive emails. Here are a few important distinctions between journaling and archiving for IT and legal teams to consider:

• Instant Email Captures: Journaling instantly captures a copy of every message sent or received. Email archiving typically occurs on a scheduled basis, but any delay in backing up communications can make it possible for users to delete unarchived messages and expose an organization to risk.
• Single vs Multi-Instance: Archiving typically stores single-instances of messages, which means that an archive would store one copy of an email sent to thousands of recipients. Journaling can store single or multiple instances in accordance with a data retention policy.
• Storage Space Utilization: One of the major obstacles to journaling is the amount of storage space needed to retain all of the email communications of a business. A journaling platform that provides intelligent data retention and expiration functionality can limit the volume of data.

Expireon is a next-generation journaling solution. This cloud-native open platform does not use proprietary APIs or file formats providing clients with true data sovereignty. While Expireon runs in our cloud environment, this platform enables an organization to store journaled messages and perform email eDiscovery on its own cloud database under its own security controls.

Does Microsoft 365 Have Journaling?

Microsoft 365 does not include journaling capabilities in the same way that an on-premise Microsoft Exchange server or other platform might offer. With Microsoft 365 you can configure an SMTP link to send messages to an external platform.

Some organizations might be happy with using the Microsoft 365 built-in retention functionality which handles in-place holds, but this doesn’t always fulfill your compliance or retention requirements.

To really gain access to the full functionality of email journaling, an organization can configure an SMTP connection in Microsoft 365 to send copies of data to Expireon.

What Is the Best Approach To Journaling for eDiscovery?

A third-party product can make comprehensive journaling available to enterprises that use Microsoft 365. Expireon is a right-sized email eDiscovery solution that organizations can configure to operate on the basis of any retention policy. The leading journaling platform supports internal audit and external discovery workflows by providing critical information or evidence in a timely manner.

The best approach to email journaling covers the preliminary stages, or left side, of the Electronic Discovery Reference Model (EDRM), which include:

• Information governance
• Identification
• Preservation
• Collection

Stakeholders can use the eDiscovery functionality of Expireon to create cases and place legal holds with the option to index the data for content searches.

A journaling solution that allows stakeholders to form collections and convert datasets into the Outlook Personal Folders or PST file format is useful for direct data transfers and uploading data to the leading legal platforms. Expireon is compatible with the legal information technology ecosystem from upstream archives to downstream forensic and review tools.

How Can Intelligent Retention Support eDiscovery?

A cloud-based platform with intelligent retention features offers an innovative solution for capturing and storing unstructured communication data. Expireon uses artificial intelligence and machine learning for journaling geared towards more efficient eDiscovery.

Categorization and indexing functions can provide a clearer understanding of content and allow for additional culling before moving messages to the most appropriate systems. These capabilities can also increase the availability of evidence during the discovery process. By using spare processing power, Expireon can make informed decisions about which emails to retain, how long to store these messages and when data should expire.

Taking a smart approach to gray data, such as ads and newsletters, is an effective way to reduce the total number of archived messages and limit the scope and costs of internal and external reviews. External eDiscovery services typically charge set rates per terabyte. Intelligent retention can limit this review process to the most relevant emails and message data.

What Are the Benefits of Email Journaling with Expireon?

Using Expireon for journaling can produce the most complete communication records. Here are several benefits of using this journaling platform:

• An Open Platform for Data: Many journaling platforms use proprietary application programming interfaces or convert data into specialized formats. Expireon uses the industry-standard S3 protocol for storing unstructured data in the original EML or MSG file formats.
• Complete Chain of Custody: The ability to display a full chain of custody for all onboarded items sets the leading email eDiscovery platform apart from other archiving solutions. Administrators can customize access controls to protect journaled messages.
• Low Cost of Ownership: The intelligent retention features of Expireon make it possible to lower the total cost of ownership for storing legacy data by up to 75%. Using this platform can reduce cloud storage and eDiscovery costs.

Journaling is the ideal approach to storing electronic communications. Stakeholders can get all of these benefits by establishing clear retention policies and procedures and setting up this platform to meet internal accountability and external compliance requirements.

Why Should Organizations Use Expireon for Email Journaling?

Expireon is a cloud-native open platform for email journaling with intelligent retention capabilities. Cloudficient specializes in meeting client needs with archive transformation solutions for Microsoft 365. Our next generation migration technology is changing the way businesses store and access records. Contact us or go to our website to find out more about Expireon and other scalable and seamless solutions for bringing Cloudficiency to any data management project.