International Computerware, Inc. (ICI), a leading global provider of information technology solutions and consulting, had a problem.  The company’s highly mobile workforce relies heavily on email and document sharing, requiring access to current and past messages and attachments. As email mailboxes became clogged, the performance of the company’s Microsoft Exchange server began to slow down. ICI also lacked an effective way to enforce email and document retention policies required to comply with state law.

 “Users were constantly complaining about how long it took to start up Outlook,” says Jamie Shepard, ICI’s executive vice president, technology solutions. “We needed an efficient, consolidated way to archive our growing email stores, manage their backups and ensure proper governance—all without inhibiting our employees’ use of email.”

 How did they do it?  ICI implemented EMC Data Domain deduplication storage systems with EMC SourceOne Email Management for Microsoft Exchange.  ICI also configured Data Domain Retention Lock software to satisfy governance requirements for active archive protection, providing a single solution for deduplication backup and archive.  With EMC backup and archiving solutions, ICI was able to:

• Decrease production email storage by 55 percent; backup storage by 35 percent
• Accelerate backup performance 70 percent
• Save $110,000 per year in reduced hardware, software, and IT staffing time
• Ensure data retention and governance

 “The SourceOne integration with Microsoft allows us to control how emails are retained and avoids the proliferation of multiple copies of the same file,” notes Shepard. “Even if someone deletes a personal archive, it will remain on Data Domain for the duration of the retention period. We are so pleased with the success of the Data Domain and SourceOne solution in our data center that we’re now offering it as a unified backup and archiving solution to our customers.”

 Read the entire story here.

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