Compliance Risks in Email Archiving Strategies: Insights from Experts

Mark Diamond, consultant with Contoural Inc., said a survey of clients showed 29% found email archiving for the long term less risky, in terms of compliance, than attempting to reduce data, while 21% thought deleting data on a regular basis was less risky. Forty-two percent answered that they are not sure. A convincing case for long-term retention, however, was found when Diamond offered insight into the inner workings of a lawyers mind in a presentation to Chicago's storage networking user group Wednesday morning.

One slide in the presentation contained a quote from an unnamed lawyer saying that his/her primary litigation strategy is first to send a letter to the lowest ranking member of a company's legal department announcing intentions to file suit. "We know it'll take at least a month for that letter to bubble up," the anonymous source said. "After 120 days, we actually file the suit and our first item of discovery is email dating from the time our initial letter was sent." By then, according to Diamond's source, most companies have moved data off primary systems and rotated backup tapes.

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