The Shifting Archived Data Landscape

Archived data (email archives in particular), are a common part of an organisation’s data management strategy. 

Many implemented email archiving solutions are to control Microsoft Exchange mailbox sizes and many more use it for maintaining a critical ‘journal’ record of all email correspondence for legal, HR or regulatory purposes.

The email archive market is mature with a large range of solutions available that include both on-premise and cloud-based options.  As technologies advance, the data archiving landscape has itself developed with existing, legacy archive platforms being replaced with a newer technology or replacement product that IT managers are being asked to deliver more frequently.

Managing an Archive Migration Project

The migration of archived data between platforms is a daunting prospect for most IT managers for a number of reasons.  While data security and integrity rank highly on the list of concerns, the complexity of a migration, its impact on end users and the load it places on resource-constrained IT departments are common issues raised.

A typical project requires dedicated infrastructure to be established and maintained throughout the migration. Depending on the volume of data to be migrated, the project can run from weeks to many months and consume a significant amount of both physical resources (servers, storage and network bandwidth) plus the personnel to run, manage and monitor the data processing.

For many IT managers, the ability to outsource practically all aspects of their project is an attractive option that allows internal resources to be deployed in other areas.  Outsourcing to proven specialists in the field also brings comfort in knowing that critical business data will be handled with the utmost security and integrity.

The TrueSwift Migration Factory™

Since delivering one of the world’s first email archive migration projects in 2006, TrueSwift continues to develop solutions in line with the changing landscape.  In 2014 (working with a distinguished customer), TrueSwift’s fully hosted, fully managed Migration Factory™ (TMF) solution was launched.

A combination of expert migration specialists and fully managed and maintained infrastructure enables customers to outsource all aspects of the archive migration, removing the headache for resource-limited IT departments.

Hosted in a secure, ISO27001 facility, TMF provides all the required infrastructure to deliver an end-to-end solution, including pre-configured, high spec processing servers, storage and network bandwidth.

TMF - Cloud-to-Cloud Migrations

With strong competition in the cloud-archiving space, the migration of data between these platforms is a growing request.  Replacing a like-for-like solution due to cost or poor customer service by the incumbent provider are common requirements. 

Delivered across 3 distinct phases, these projects typically include:

• Extraction and storage of legacy data from the source platform
• Data formatting to ensure compatibility with onward ingestion
• Ingestion into the target platform

Each of the phases requires a significant amount of processing power, network bandwidth and file storage which are all key components in the TMF solution.

TMF – Fragile Source Archive Platforms

TMF has helped organisations whose source archiving platforms were ageing and ‘fragile’.  With customers expressing concerns that their source platform would not withstand the load of a mass extraction in a timely manner, the TMF solution is able to still extract data without placing any load on the source production archiving platform.

This feature extends to source platforms that are no longer functioning.   For Enterprise Vault, EAS and other solutions, TMF can be used to extract data from a copy of the archived data itself, removing the requirement for a functioning archiving environment.  Working against an offline copy of the underlying archived data, the TMF solution can still extract all accessible archived data with zero load on the production environment.

Benefits of TrueSwift Migration Factory

• Enables the complete outsourcing of an archive migration project
• Near zero load on client personnel
• Zero load on client infrastructure
• Pre-installed and project-ready means that extractions can be started within hours of engagement