I've been beating the e-mail archiving drum in this column and elsewhere for a long time, not because anybody wants me to, but because I believe strongly that e-mail archiving is a very good idea for organizations of all sizes and in all industries. Here's why:

1. An e-mail archiving system is a very good storage management tool. It offloads data from 'live' storage on e-mail servers and results in a number of benefits: more reliable e-mail servers, better server performance, faster restoration of message stores after a server crash, etc. Plus, even though the size of the message store per user on the server can be reduced, it still allows users complete access to older messages.

2. An e-mail archiving system protects you from e-mail being taken out of context. If you're an organization of any size, you stand a good chance of being sued. Although e-mail archiving is a double-edged sword because it preserves e-mail that might be embarrassing if discovered during a legal action, it also allows you to maintain the context of a message. If someone suing your company possesses a copy of an incriminating e-mail, for example, an important part of your defense might be the thread of e-mails that led up to that particular message - not having this thread can place you at a disadvantage in a legal action.

3. An e-mail archiving system allows you to comply with the growing mix of laws at the local, state/provincial, federal and international levels that apply to records retention.

4. An e-mail archiving system is a great knowledge management tool. Many employees use e-mail as a repository for all kinds of stuff, a trend that will increase as employees rely on e-mail for managing everything from contacts to appointments to fax to voicemails.

To address the issues surrounding archiving, Osterman Research will be hosting a Webinar on Oct. 19 entitled "Top 10 Questions and Answers on E-mail Archiving."  To attend this free Webinar, you can visit the Webinar sign-up page to sign up.  The Webinar is being sponsored by Fortiva.

I look forward to "seeing" you there.

Michael Osterman is principal analyst of Osterman Research.