Archive 360 provides the secure cloud-based, integrated email archiving and information management solution trusted by organizations worldwide. We’ve not only helped more than 2000 companies and government agencies around the world migrate from their existing legacy email archiving solution. We’ve also provided them with the best cloud-archiving and information management software available – from Archive360, of course!

Today, legacy email archiving software, such as Enterprise Vault, Source One, Mimecast, OpenText AXS-One Archive, and GWAVA Retain, haven’t kept pace with the times, exposing their customers to data breaches and ransomware, forcing their developers and customers to create risky workarounds or, in the case of MX Logic and Mimosa NearPoint, drop support altogether. As a result, many organizations like yours are looking for future-proof alternatives, especially as corporate digital transformation initiatives, such as the adoption of cloud-based tools like Microsoft Office 365 and Gmail, make cloud-based email archiving a much more attractive prospect.

Migrating from an on-premises archive to the cloud (or from a legacy archiving application in the cloud) provides a way to not only securely manage all of your historical archiving data needs but also to unlock many new opportunities for your business. It also provides flexibility and scalability as your needs shift and your organization grows. 

When it comes to an email archiving solution comparison, there are several key questions to ask yourself before you make a decision for your business, including:

Key Questions to Ask Yourself Before You Make a Decision

Your Data Source: What is your current email archiving solution?

Is it an on-premises archive like Enterprise Vault or SourceOne, a SaaS solution like Mimecast, Smarsh, or Global Relay, or are you starting from scratch?

When planning an archive migration, it’s essential to verify that the migration of your current archived data can be completed without damaging chain of custody or impacting your day-to-day operations.

Your Data Source: Are you archiving non-email data?

In addition to email, is your team also archiving data from other applications? For instance, collaboration data from applications such as Microsoft Teams or Splunk? What about structured data from legacy applications?

As you think about data archiving going forward, you should plan for the different data types your organization will need to retain. In the future, email may only account for a small percentage of the data that your team will need to archive, manage and make available for search or business intelligence.

Your Data Source: Will you need to journal data?

Are your currently archiving journal data for regulatory compliance? In the future, will you need to journal data?

Depending on why you’re looking to migrate your email archive and your archiving needs in the future, you will need to plan for what to do with your legacy journal, as well as where and how to compliantly archive your journal in the future.

Data Volume: How much data do you have?

Do you know how much archived data you have? Does that include “dark” data for inactive and departed users?

Prior to implementing a new email archiving policy (including archiving directly within Office 365), organizations should review what data they have and decide where and how they want to manage it going forward.

Data Location: Where will your data be stored?

In the future, will your archives be hosted on-premises, online through a SaaS solution, or in your own private cloud in your own cloud tenant?

Depending on your data security, privacy, and other regulatory compliance obligations, as well as the need to ensure total control of your data at all times, you may be looking to transition from an on-premises or SaaS-based solution to one that is hosted in your own cloud tenant.

Data Security: How much control should you have?

Should your security policies and processes be set by your security teams or by the third-party vendor you choose? And who has the rights to create, store, and access your data’s encryption keys?

The best email archiving software enables you to define a security footprint that’s in keeping with your existing policies and allows you to control your own encryption keys.

Data Access: What can you do with your data?

Will your files be stored on underperforming infrastructure, locked in a proprietary format, or be limited to access via vendor-supplied tools? Do your legal or other teams need access to historical email for eDiscovery or FOIA purposes?

The ability to access your emails and files in their native format is crucial if you want to carry out analysis and use the latest cloud-based tools to harness AI (Artificial Intelligence) and ML (Machine Learning). It’s also critical for your in-house or external counsel or Records Management teams, depending on what industry you’re in and how often historical records need to be accessed.

 

Why Leading Organizations Choose Archive360 for Email Archiving

Zero-trust security. Zero vendor lock-in.

Designed for the hyperscale cloud, trusted by leading global organizations, and able to unlock value from your archived data, Archive360’s Integrated Archiving and Information Platform is the leading choice for organizations looking for a compliance archive built for the cloud. As part of your email archiving solutions comparison, explore Archive360’s powerful platform features below...

Your data, in your cloud under your control

Archive360 works with some of the most security-conscious and compliance-centric businesses and government agencies in the world. That’s why our integrated archiving and information management platform was built to be cloud-agnostic. We’re installed in the customer’s own cloud tenant, your data is always retained in its original format (not ours), and you decide the infrastructure, security, regulatory, and legal configuration to meet your specific requirements.

Purpose-built for the hyperscale cloud

Archive360’s archiving software was designed from the ground up for use in the cloud, including public clouds like Microsoft Azure. Unlike legacy solutions that were developed to be run on-premises and are now delivered as SaaS solutions, Archive360 unlocks all the benefits of the cloud, from pay-as-you-go pricing to on-demand scalability and immense compute power, Archive360’s Open Archive is a modern platform built for modern business.

Seamlessly Migrate Your Data

Moving your existing data from legacy systems is a key consideration, and comparison is a crucial step when deciding on a provider to migrate your on-premises archives or Exchange data archiving solutions. In order to benefit from the many opportunities the cloud offers, you must first find a way to move your on-premises or cloud legacy archives to the hyperscale cloud in a legally defensible manner without the risk of data corruption, inadvertent metadata loss, or change, leaving data behind, negatively impacting ongoing operations and end-user productivity, or damaging chain of custody. Archive360 has carried out more than 2000 successful migrations across a range of legacy solutions and can seamlessly transfer your data to the cloud using our own migration IP. Thanks to our in-depth knowledge of each legacy solution and many years of experience, we can migrate faster and more accurately than other providers like Transvault and QuadroTech, and maintain full chain of custody without impacting your network bandwidth.

You control with your security footprint and encryption keys

Your security teams have spent time and money developing security policies and protocols that meet the unique needs of your business and satisfy those of regulatory agencies. Archive360 ensures you don’t have to make exceptions or compromise on any area of your security footprint. Unlike SaaS providers, who can only provide a “one size fits all” security model, Archive360 enables you to configure our solution to satisfy your own security policies and retain complete control over your encryption keys.

Fast collect for legacy email archives image
Data Sheet

Archive360 FastCollect™ for Legacy Email Archives

Compliantly migrate 10-20 times faster with complete legal chain of custody

Choose where your data is stored

Hyperscale cloud providers offer the widest range of locations in which to store your data. Whether you need customer information to reside in a specific country to meet data sovereignty and privacy laws such as GDPR or are planning to expand your business into new territories, you can choose one or multiple locations to suit your organization’s regulatory needs.

Unlock value by accessing and analyzing your data

User-generated data is quickly becoming the best resource for business insight, yet many are still in the dark. Storing your archived data in its native format in the hyperscale cloud can unlock incredible, actionable insight using modern tools for search and analysis. From AI and ML solutions to the fastest, most accurate search tools, your cloud-based data and email archive can become a new secret weapon for your business.

More than just email data

Your primary concern is email archiving. However, your organization needs to retain other content and records for regulatory or legal reasons. This may include content generated by other e-communication or collaboration platforms, such as Microsoft Teams. It may also be corporate records generated by back-office systems. It could be data generated by legacy applications that you want to retire. Archive360’s integrated archiving and information management platform allows you to retain and manage unstructured content (such as email) as well as structured content (like application data), eliminating data silos and reducing the costs and risks of retaining, searching, and accessing content.

The archiving features you need

No email archiving solutions comparison would be complete without investigating the basic functionality of the platform. When moving away from a legacy archive, it’s important to know that key features your users rely on in your existing solution will be available as normal. Fortunately, Archive360’s integrated archiving and information management platform not only provides the powerful features we’ve already mentioned but does the basics better too. Here’s a sample of the type of functionality you can expect.

Automated Classification

Using machine learning, Archive360’s Open Archive takes records management to the next level, with fully automated classification across thousands of file types.

Advanced eDiscovery

Using AI, eDiscovery searches are enhanced using Archive360’s Open Archive. With case management, culling/filtering, customizable indexing, and legal hold capabilities baked into the platform, you have a complete eDiscovery capability within your archive. You can even search for keywords and phrases in video and audio files, as well as other modern data formats such as chat and social media.

Not All Cloud Data and Email Archives are the Same

As part of your email archiving solutions comparison work, you’ll likely have noticed two different types of archiving available, both of which claim to compliantly store and manage your data in the cloud. Therefore, it’s important to understand the difference between true, hyperscale cloud email archiving and Software as a Service (SaaS) solutions.

Unlike SaaS email archiving tools like Mimecast, Smarsh, and Global Relay, Archive360 Open Archive is designed for use in your own private cloud, not just sharing a part of a third-party leased cloud that is used by many others. This is what’s known as a public multi-tenant cloud, and it provides a significant drawback for the client – your encryption keys are created and controlled by the SaaS vendor and could be used across SaaS clients.

This is just one of many differences that sets our solution apart and will help you to make up your mind when comparing Archive360 against SaaS email and data archiving solutions.

Email archiving software comparison:
4 negatives of SaaS archiving


1. SaaS lacks security

SaaS archives don’t allow you to set your own security processes and protocols because they follow a one-size-fits-all approach to security. This means you will have to agree to your SaaS vendor’s security practices rather than set your own. From firewalls and data center security to the level of background checks carried out on those with access to your data, security compromises will have to be made if you opt for SaaS.

2. No control over encryption keys

Controlling your own encryption keys is a central part of any security policy, especially where customer data is involved. However, SaaS solutions use multi-tenant clouds, which means the vendor controls the encryption key for all of its many clients’ data. Because encryption keys could be re-used among many clients, data breaches and the associated regulatory issues are much greater. This also means that the SaaS vendor can access your company’s sensitive data at any time. Not a good situation for your business when it comes to compliance.

3. You may not have a choice over where your data resides

With most SaaS vendors offering a limited data center footprint, many geographical locations are off-limits, restricting your flexibility when it comes to complying with privacy laws and other regulations.

4. You lose full access to your data

Ensuring your data is stored in its native format and can be accessed by your teams or trusted third parties is essential for modern business. With many SaaS vendors wrapping your archived files in their proprietary format, your data is stored in what amounts to a data prison, with huge charges incurred if you ever want to move your data out of the SaaS cloud platform. In addition to this data ransoming, you are also unable to make use of cutting-edge solutions, such as powerful data analytics capabilities or AI and ML technology to provide content-based auto-classification for accurate information management.

Email archiving software comparison: SaaS vendors block control over…

  • Threat detection
  • Identity management
  • Application security analysis
  • Firewall and firewall rules
  • Cloud-native directories
  • Background checks
  • Compliance reports
  • Encryption keys
  • Physical data center security

The Benefits of Archive360 vs SaaS Solutions

Features SaaS Archives Archive360
Infrastructure    
Host data in your corporate cloud
Security    
Protect Data with encryption keys
Compliance    
Meet SEC 17a-4 regulations
Meet GDPR Regulations Limited
Policy-driven records Limited
Compliant onboarding
Performance    
Active user-based pricing
Management    
Standard eDiscovery with case management
AI-powered eDiscovery
Manage any content/data type Limited
Records analysis, classification and management Limited
Policy-driven records classification and transformation
Data Loss Prevention and sensitive data analysis alerts
Export and produce data for third party consumption
Role-based access with Active Directory Integration Limited
Native import and export with O365, SharePoint Online and OneDrive Limited
Onboarding    
Accelerated onboarding at 50 TB per day
Restore legacy archives back to native format
Pricing    
Active user-based pricing
Interactive Users - free of charge (restrictions apply)

Your Ideal Data and Email Archiving Solution

When seeking the ideal email and data archiving solutions, review what each platform can provide you in addition to the basic archiving process. As well as best-in-class security, complete control, and scalability in your own cloud tenant, Archive360 allows you to better harness your data than SaaS archives can. With access to your data in its native format, you have the power to do more with your data, unlocking new business insight and empowering your teams through business intelligence.

Search faster, search better.

Archive360’s email archiving solution creates customizable indexes as your data is ingested. This enables higher-performing metadata searches, even of audio and video formats. This means you can identify keywords and phrases within a media file and be taken to the precise point in the file where they are mentioned. Capabilities like this are only available when your data and emails are archived in their native format in the cloud.

Does your data archiving solution let you…

  • Use the latest cloud-based ML/AI and analytics tools as they’re released?
  • Search, access, and analyze files in their native format?
  • Find specific words and phrases within archived audio and video files?

Wherever your data comes from, it’s welcome in an Archive360 Integrated Archive

Now you’ve seen the pros and cons of other email archiving solutions, review what you’ve learned when compared with Archive360’s Integrated Archiving and information management platform. No matter what solution you currently use, we can help you migrate your legacy data to the cloud faster and more accurately than anyone else and help you secure and harness your data when it gets there. When placed alongside common SaaS solutions, the advantages of our powerful, future-proofed platform are clear.

Fast collect for legacy email archives image
Datasheet

Archive360 FastCollect™ for Legacy Email Archives

Compliantly migrate 10-20 times faster with complete legal chain of custody