Osterman Research Paper Reaffirms Microsoft Office 365 Collaboration Platform Prevalence; Reveals Pros and Cons in eDiscovery and Compliance Capabilities

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New Research Indicates Best Practices Should Incorporate Blend of Microsoft and Non-Microsoft Solutions in Order to Comply with Legal and Regulatory Requirements; and Avoid Serious Penalties

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Archive360

Oct 26, 2016, 06:00 ET

NEW YORK and BLACK DIAMOND, Wash., Oct. 26, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Archive360, the leading provider of email archive and data migration software, together with Osterman Research, a leading provider of research and insight for business organizations in the messaging and content management industry, today announced the release of a new report entitled, "Best Practices for eDiscovery and Regulatory Compliance in Office 365."

Results of the white paper's foundational survey and accompanying research found that eDiscovery and regulatory compliance now rate among the highest essential IT and business priorities for any organization, regardless of size or industry. Albeit, heavily regulated industries such as financial services, healthcare, life sciences, and energy face higher levels of compliance obligation and stiffer penalties. Further, the Osterman paper reaffirmed that while Microsoft Office 365 remains one of the most prevalently deployed communication and collaboration platforms, its eDiscovery and compliance capabilities have both pros and cons. Among the paper's key recommendations was the advice that a blend of Microsoft and non-Microsoft solutions is the best approach for assuring compliance with eDiscovery and regulatory requirements, thereby removing the threat of serious legal and financial penalties.

"For Microsoft, Office 365 is first-and-foremost a day-to-day communication and collaboration cloud environment – a market in which it hotly competes against Google, Slack, Huddle and others. And, while Office 365 delivers obvious eDiscovery and regulatory benefits, some shortcomings remain. This is likely due to conflicting priorities and design goals, such as those between day-to-day interaction and long-term retention," said Michael Osterman, President, Osterman Research. "If IT, legal, and compliance executives take nothing else away from this report, it should be that ensuring the ability to properly meet compliance and eDiscovery requirements takes in-depth understanding and a blend of purpose-built and production proven solutions."

"Best Practices for eDiscovery and Regulatory Compliance in Office 365" Key Takeaways include:

Microsoft Office 365 provides a successful and popular set of communications and collaboration capabilities, and its use will continue to grow at a rapid pace. Although Microsoft has been offering hosted/cloud-based offerings for more than 15 years, Office 365 is the most successful iteration of the company's cloud-based communications and collaboration offerings to date.
eDiscovery and compliance obligations are becoming more onerous and complex over time. However, these are essential capabilities that decision makers must consider in the context of their communications, collaboration, file sharing, storage and other strategies.
These complications are being driven by a number of factors, including the rapid proliferation of electronic information, the increasing number of data types that must be retained for legal and regulatory purposes, the increasing amount of data that employees manage independently of IT, and increased government oversight into corporate activities.
Increasing regulation, oversight and court actions create an ever more complex minefield of Discovery and regulatory requirements, a situation that will become only more difficult over time. A failure to adequately address these issues will increase corporate risk.
Microsoft has done a great job at building eDiscovery and compliance capabilities into Office 365 and should be commended for doing so. However, there are a number of limitations and deficiencies in Office 365 from an eDiscovery and compliance context that decision makers should consider as they evaluate their eDiscovery and regulatory obligations. Even more so in environments that operate both Microsoft and non-Microsoft solutions.

To download the Osterman Research paper in its entirety, please visit: http://bit.ly/2erYEhd

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About Archive360
Archive360™ is the market leader in email archive migration software, successfully migrating more than 12 petabytes of data for more than 500 organizations worldwide since 2012. The company's flagship product, Archive2Anywhere™, is the only solution in the market purpose-built to deliver consistently fast, trouble-free, predictable archive migrations, with verifiable data fidelity and defensible chain of custody reporting. Archive360's newly released Archive2Azure™ solution is the industry's first regulatory compliance and grey data storage solution based on the Microsoft Azure platform. Archive360 is a global organization and delivers its solutions through a network of specialist partners. Archive360 is a Microsoft Cloud Solution Provider and the Archive2Azure solution is Microsoft Azure Certified. For further information, please visit: www.archive360.com.

Archive360, Archive2Anywhere and Archive2Azure are trademarks of Archive360. All other brands and product names in this announcement may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.