We conducted a study recently and asked decision-makers in midsized and large organizations in North America about how concerned they are on a variety of issues. We asked them whether they are more, less or equally concerned about each issue now compared to 12 months earlier.

We found that 36% of decision-makers are more concerned about the need to archive e-mail today than they were 12 months ago. Similarly, 30% are more concerned about e-discovery issues than they were a year ago. Only 12% and 13% of decision makers are less concerned about e-mail archiving and e-discovery, respectively.

With regard to security issues, the potential for viruses to infiltrate through e-mail is now much less of an issue: only 12% are more concerned today than a year ago about this eventuality, while more than twice as many are less concerned. However, decision makers are significantly more concerned about spyware infecting their networks (Compare antispyware products), while even more are concerned about Web-based threats and the amount of spam that they receive (Compare antispam products). Interestingly, the ability to manage and secure mobile devices was even more serious a concern to decision makers.

What this tells us is that concerns about the need to archive e-mail – and one of the primary drivers for archiving and e-discovery – are becoming very top of mind for decision makers. I believe that contributing to this concern is that archiving and e-discovery are not as clear-cut as some other issues like spyware or Web-based threats. What I mean is that everyone agrees that a security threat should be eradicated. However, not everyone agrees that e-mail and other content should be preserved, nor is there complete agreement on how long to retain certain types of documents, if tape backups should be migrated to an archive, and so forth. 

In short, there is much more “gray area” with archiving and e-discovery than with security and, hence, more concern, particularly in light of recent court decisions interpreting the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, the admissibility of e-mail as evidence and other rulings.

Michael Osterman is principal analyst of Osterman Research.