U.S. Department of State Bureau of Public Affairs Relies on Metalogix Archive Manager to Improve Its Microsoft Exchange Environment

OVERVIEW

The Bureau of Public Affairs (PA) is an important part of the Department of State with their objective being to disseminate information on U.S. foreign policy and the State Department to American citizens. The Bureau uses email and other forms of communication to connect policymakers, international bodies and citizens. The transactions carried out by the Bureau rely upon fast and dependable communication systems, which are highly confidential. The data management technologies in place require smooth interoperability and stable performance.

THE CHALLENGE

Government agencies have high industry standards in terms of IT, and software installations specifically. The Department’s existing security benchmarks made selecting an email archiving solution even harder. It meant the suitable software must be a reliable, secure and scalable product.

The primary technical problem facing the Bureau was managing the ever- growing number of PST files being stored on the system. Archiving is a great tool for removing unwanted data from an increasing store.

Secondly, the Bureau required a solution that could archive without the need for the journaling. Very few products offer an alternative to the more common journal mailbox archiving but in many cases, journaling is an unnecessary archiving technique.

The final test was to ensure the implementation and entire archiving process had as little impact on the end users as possible. A user transparent interface was a must.

These difficulties led the Bureau to find an accurate, secure and relevant archiving platform to continue secure communication with the Department, other U.S. governmental agencies, private businesses, international government agencies and the public.

THE SOLUTION

Metalogix Archive Manager for Exchange was chosen as the email archiving solution for several important reasons: To gather and import all PST files onto storage media; to enhance the Microsoft Exchange environment by not using the journaling; and to be completely user transparent and to extend the departments email system functionality.

Metalogix Archive Manager for Exchange balances innovative archiving features with practical storage measures to improve the MS Exchange environment. The PST gatherer and archive importer is one example of a tried and tested aspect of the software which manages this area of the data management process.

On the other hand, the direct archiving feature is unique to Metalogix Archive Manager and is a cutting-edge archiving technology. The tool allows the archiving process to occur instantaneously as soon as the message hits the Exchange server. Archiving via the journaling is unnecessary as the system performance and efficiency is considerably affected.

As part of the Bureau’s risk management strategy, Metalogix Archive Manager for Exchange disaster recovery management was incorporated into the IT contingency plan. Developing and maintaining business continuity and especially email continuity is of vital importance to the Bureau and Department.

THE RESULTS

Enhancing the Microsoft Exchange environment

• PST gatherer and importer of PST files on the system. All excess PST’s were eliminated.
• Maintain IT security standards: “It is very important for security reasons that only staff with the authorized rights can access the archive.”
• Nothing was installed on the Exchange servers. The archive is fully indexed and easily searchable.
• Every mailbox had size limits removed and still the average mailbox size is just 100MB.
• The capabilities and combinations of archiving jobs allowed administrators flexible archiving strategies.

Extended archiving features:

• The archiving interface is literally invisible to the end user. Client Add-In is optional and only installed for a small number of super users.
• The solution does not need to use the journaling; thus, giving archiving the option to be selective as well as all-inclusive.
• Multi-faceted email archiving software controlled and managed using an integrated HSM Archive Engine.