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To PST or not PST…….that is the question…….

Should you use PST files to solve your storage issues?   Cillian Sweeney – Waterford Technologies             

Should you use PST files to solve your storage issues?  

Cillian Sweeney – Waterford Technologies                     

It was while flicking through TV channels on another  “bad TV night” that I came across a series called Hoarders. Needless to say it’s centered on people who find it impossible to bin/disregard/let go of items. Oftentimes there is no rational explanation for their actions, they want to hold onto what seems to be meaningless or outdated possessions. The 15 year old soap holder, the CD cover for the 1st CD they bought (which is empty!), the tv remote for a tv that has long since departed the house…..….the list is endless.

To any rational person these actions seem strange, bizarre, even laughable. And yet in IT that same mentality exists.

PST files are created by IT to accommodate individuals regarding their email data. Mailbox quotas which are unenforceable are in place, even where none exist  mailboxes are overflowing with historical email in the tens of thousands or people want to have a copy of important email correspondence stored locally on their computer so they can access it for an occasion maybe sometime in the future – they hoard email.

By allowing users have PST’s files for the reasons above IT have either knowingly or inadvertently  exposed themselves & their organisation;
  • PST files are not support by Microsoft
  • They can become corrupted and/or be deleted
  • Because they are stored locally on a computer if that device were to be stolen, get a serious virus, become damaged beyond repair there is no way to retrieve the PST data
  • IT have no visibility as to the volume or owners within an organisation of PST data
All IT need to do to allow users have access to their historical email is to implement an email archiving. Secure, cheap & easy to deploy, an email archiving solution helps IT by;
  • Taking all data in PST files within an organisation & placing it centrally within an archive, thereby eliminating them from the IT environment
  • Giving staff a speedy, user friendly portal to retrieve their historic email themselves. No need to trouble IT
  • Capturing all email data once it hits the Exchange/Domino box & automatically moving it to the archive in the background. It is not a manual process
  • Having a retrieval process with an interface such that staff are unaware that their historic email is now not local on their computer but rather stored within a central archive
  • Having all email data, current & historic, as well as all data in PST files stored in a secure & tamper proof archive where it is digitally encrypted

Don’t encourage your staff to hoard email, archive it!

Just visit www.waterfordtechnologies.com and see how you can eliminate your PST headache/exposure today.