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Glossary

Email Archiving

Email archiving is the systematic preservation of email messages in a dedicated, searchable, and typically immutable repository. Archived emails are stored separately from active mailboxes and are retained for compliance, legal discovery, and historical reference purposes.

Key Aspects

Immutable Storage

Archived emails are stored in a tamper-proof format, ensuring they cannot be altered or deleted.

Full-Text Search

Archives provide powerful search capabilities across all stored messages for legal and compliance queries.

Compliance Support

Meets regulatory requirements for email preservation in industries like finance, healthcare, and government.

Email Archiving vs. Email Backup

Email archiving and email backup serve different purposes and should not be confused. Backups create copies of email data for disaster recovery — they protect against data loss from hardware failure, accidental deletion, or cyberattacks. Archives preserve emails in an indexed, searchable, immutable format for long-term compliance and legal needs.

Archives are designed for retrieval and search. When a legal team needs to produce emails for a court case (eDiscovery), the archive provides fast, targeted search across millions of messages. Backups, by contrast, are designed for bulk restoration and lack the granular search capabilities needed for compliance and legal work.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which industries require email archiving?
Financial services (SEC, FINRA), healthcare (HIPAA), government (FOIA), and publicly traded companies (SOX) commonly have email archiving requirements. Many other industries archive as a best practice.
Does email archiving include signatures and attachments?
Yes. Archives preserve the complete email message including the body, signature, headers, and all attachments. The entire message is archived as it was sent or received.
How long should archived emails be kept?
Retention depends on regulatory requirements. SEC rules require broker-dealers to retain email for 3-6 years. HIPAA requires 6 years. SOX requires 7 years. Some organizations retain indefinitely.
Can archived emails be deleted?
In most compliance-grade archives, emails cannot be deleted during the retention period. After the retention period expires, the policy may allow automatic purging. Legal holds can prevent deletion regardless of retention rules.

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