External Archiving Integration Modules
A key component of policy management in today’s regulated world is the archiving of electronic communications for compliance to regulations and policies. Various regulatory agencies and bodies of law have updated legal requirements over the past few years to account for the ever-growing use of electronic messaging in the workplace. Yet most companies have equated “electronic messaging” with “email”, and have not even considered their obligations to retain other electronic messaging media like instant messaging, server-based fax, or online conferences.
Still, “Ignorance of the law is no excuse,” as they say, and eventually companies and other organizations will have to face their gaps in electronic records retention… one way or the other.
One example of regulated industry addressing the need to archive all electronic communications is the securities industry. In June 2007, The Financial Regulatory Authority (“FINRA”) (then NASD and NYSE Member Regulation) issued for comment proposed guidance regarding the review and supervision of electronic communications. FINRA received 17 comment letters, with a majority of commenters supporting the guidance. The final guidance was issued in December 2007. In this final guidance, FINRA reiterated their position of 2003 that “For purposes of this guidance, `electronic communications,’ `email’ and `electronic correspondence’ may be used interchangeably and can include such forms of electronic communications as instant messaging and text messaging.” They also commented that “FINRA views E-faxes as electronic communications and, thus, members should supervise them accordingly”
As a result, archiving of electronic communications in the financial sector has morphed quickly into a multi-headed monster that threatens non-complying firms with fines and legal actions. The same is either true now or will be in the near future for other industries and organizations that face regulations recording records retention and appropriate use.
L7 Enterprise is the Unified Policy Management platform for monitoring the content of all real-time communications, filtering for appropriate use, and copying the content of those messages to the organization’s archiving platform. L7 Enterprise transforms the formats of instant messages, electronic faxes, VOIP logs, and conferencing logs into the unique formats recognized and supported by each of the leading email archival systems. In effect, L7 Enterprise turns all real-time communications content into “email-like” messages (or “conversations”) that may then archived within the organization’s designated retention platform.
With the L7 Enterprise External Archiving Integration module, companies are assured that they have one unified repository for electronic records retention, and can satisfy regulations and policies requiring that all electronic communications be archived.
Archiving platforms that support injection of real-time communications messages by Akonix L7 Enterprise include:
- C2C Archive One*
- CA Message Manager
- EMC EmailXtender*
- Fortiva
- HP IAP*
- Intradyn*
- Iron Mountain Active Email Archiving*
- Microsoft Exchange Hosted Archive*
- Quest Software
- Symantec Enterprise Vault*
- ZANTAZ Digital Safe*
- ZL Unified Archive
* Formal alliance partner
