There are many reasons that you need to keep all of your business’s emails. The period over which you are legally required to keep all emails varies from country to country, from state to state and by industry.

Keeping in mind how quickly an individual’s inbox can fill up, you will soon realize that a business that has been operating for a number of years soon builds up a very large back catalog of emails. The storage of these takes up a lot of space and that costs money.

Here is our list of the best email archiving solutions:

  • N-able Mail Assure EDITOR’S CHOICE An email security and management service that is designed for use by managed service providers when serving their clients – client emails are secured by encryption on cloud servers and held in separate sub-accounts that is each a virtual private server. Get a 30-day free trial.
  • Trustifi Outbound Shield (ACCESS DEMO) This cloud-based service offers a range of email and data protection systems, including a backup process to store all outgoing emails.
  • ManageEngine Exchange Reporter Plus (FREE TRIAL) This is an auditing and reporting tool for Exchange Server. Available for Windows Server and Azure.
  • Proofpoint Essentials A package of email security and management services that includes archiving.
  • Topsec Email Archiving Specialized email archiving service.
  • Barracuda Essentials An email security and management services bundle.
  • ArcTitan A dedicated email archiving service.
  • modusCloud Email Archiving Email archiving from an email security specialist.
  • Hornetsecurity Email Archiving An email archiving service with automated email selection and transfer.
  • Intradyn Email Archiver A comprehensive email archiving service with legal compliance features.

You need to copy over all of your data onto a remote server in order to protect against a disaster on your premises destroying your on-site data stores. With email, you also need to store those old emails in an accessible and searchable format.

As the years pass, more legislation is put in place and new data protection standards arise. Each of these legal events creates new obligations. So there isn’t one single rule on how long you must retain emails. The legal requirement for email retention is different in each country. However, to give an idea of how complicated things have gotten, here is a list of the current obligations in the USA.

This list doesn’t take into account industry conventional practices or other advice that might recommend longer email storage periods.

Obligations over email storage

Naturally, as you are legally obliged to protect all of the data that your company holds, you need to ensure that the remote store of emails is kept secure with access restrictions and encryption. You also need to decide a time period for archiving.

There is no legal obligation over the length of time that you keep emails available within your mail server and when to archive them off. The only legal requirement is that those emails should be accessible immediately on demand and that they should not be amended.

Fortunately, all of the requirements for archiving emails are taken care of by specialist services, so you don’t have to go to the bother of putting specialized protection measures in place or working out how to transfer emails securely to remote storage.

The evolution of electronic archiving

Thanks to the Cloud, it is now very easy to locate good email archiving services. The Software-as-a-Service model combines server facilities with managing software and that is a perfect combination for email archiving.

Specialist companies that operate in this niche know all of the legal requirements for the services that they offer. That expertise can put your mind at rest, knowing that you are fulfilling all of your legal obligations.

For these legal assurances, it is better to subscribe to a specialist email archiving service rather than just zipping all of your email storage files and transferring them to a rented virtual server. The storage format needs to be searchable and have a specific level of security.

The best email archiving solutions

Not every email archiving service goes to the trouble of making sure they are legally compliant. So, you could get yourself into legal trouble if you just pick the first email archive service from search results.

We have researched the industry and come up with a list of recommendations in this field.

Our methodology for selecting email archiving systems

We reviewed the market for email archiving solutions and analyzed the options based on the following criteria:

  • A business associate agreement for compliance where necessary
  • Options for levels of archiving with some emails available for scrutiny
  • An option to revive archives for auditing
  • Compression to reduce storage space
  • A method of indexing to enable specific periods to be identified
  • A free trial or a demo that provides an opportunity to assess the service before buying
  • Value for money from a reliable archiving service that is offered at a reasonable price

You can read more about each of these email archiving solutions in the following sections.

1. N-able Mail Assure (FREE TRIAL)

N-able’s Mail Assure is a very flexible archiving service that is part of a bundle of cloud-based email protection utilities.

Key Features:

  • Spam filtering
  • Phishing detection
  • Email backup
  • Live archiving
  • Unlimited retention period

The service enables you to use the archive as a live backup utility as well as long-term storage. It is possible to restore an individual email from the archive, should one get deleted from your mail server. You can also restore emails in bulk and search through the archive without having to bring all emails back to base. There is no limit to the length of time that an email can be retained in the Mail Assure archive utility.

The service is designed with legal access in mind, so it includes search facilities that support the e-discovery requirements of auditors and legal teams.

Access to archives is protected with credentials and the storage is encrypted, so not even the technicians running the service could read your company’s emails. Mail Assure complies with all of the legal requirements for email retention.

The Mail Assure package is centered around a mail gateway. All of your incoming emails run through the Mail Assure server before they arrive at your own mail server. Outbound emails pass through the Mail assure system as well. As emails arrive, the Mail Assure system filters out spam, malware, and phishing attempts. This service greatly reduces the volume of emails that your own network needs to deal with. Outgoing emails can be scanned as part of a data loss prevention policy.

As a remote service, Mail Assure frees up resources in your business and it is also able to monitor cloud-based email servers, such as Office 365. You can get a 30-day free trial of N-able Mail Assure.

Pros:

  • Based in the cloud, no surprise infrastructure costs
  • Designed for MSPs and multi-tenant use
  • If self-learning, and uses data collected internally to improve threat detection
  • Supports protection for cloud-hosted email servers

Cons:

  • The platform has many features which will require time to fully explore

2. Trustifi Outbound Shield (ACCESS DEMO)

EDITOR’S CHOICE

N-able Mail Assure is our top pick for an email archiving solution because it allows managed service providers to add a service to their menu and help clients secure their emails in storage. This service can also be used as a backup system, enabling you to define a retention period after which, emails are sent to archive. As well as providing business continuity, this system scans all incoming emails for spam and phishing attempts, thus reducing wasted time and space. There is no limit to the amount of space each account can use and there is no limit on the retention period either.

Download: Get a 30-day free trial

Official Site: https://www.n-able.com/products/mail-assure/trial

OS: Cloud based

Trustifi is a cloud-based service that processes all emails going into and out of a business. The platform is divided into modules and one of these is Outbound Shield.

  • Email backup
  • Archiving
  • AES-256 encryption
  • 1GB of cloud storage

The Outbound Shield system catches all emails going out of a business and enables security scanning. It will also backup any attachments on emails and optionally, the email as well. Those attachments can be examined for data disclosure and the user also has the opportunity to download or resend the file.

Emails and attachments are stored in a secure area that is protected by 256-bit AES encryption. This cipher is uncrackable and it was created for use by US government agencies and the military.

The storage of emails acts as an archiving system, although the files and mails are never compressed. The standard plan includes 1 GB of storage. The Outbound Shield classifies emails and attachments for sensitive contents and that classification is shown in the dashboard screen where the files are stored.

The storage system includes a search facility, which can be used for compliance auditing. It also allows users to create new emails within the system and attach stored documents. This function operates as a continuity system in case the business’s main mail server goes offline or is attacked.

The email backup system is just one of the tools included in the Outbound Shield package. The plan also scans outgoing emails for sensitive data and optionally blocks transmission, pauses it for decision, or lets it through according to the security policies that you set. You also get Inbound Shield in the same plan and that blocks phishing attempts and malware hidden in attachments. There isn’t a free trial for the package but you can request a demo.

  • Easy to set up

  • Based in the cloud and accessible from anywhere

  • Backs up attachments

  • Optionally backs up outgoing emails

  • Would like a free trial.

Trustifi Access Demo

3. ManageEngine Exchange Reporter Plus (FREE TRIAL)

ManageEngine Exchange Reporter Plus is a package of Exchange Server management tools that will explore, analyze, and improve the structure of an Exchange instance. The system is a particularly good buy for businesses that need to comply with SOX, HIPAA, PCI DSS, GLBA, GDPR, and FISMA. The service also covers Outlook instances and Skype for Business.

  • Exchange, Outlook, and Skype for Business
  • Delivery tracking
  • Free plan

The reporting tool is more of an analyzer. You select a specific topic from a menu of reports and then run it. The results will give you an assessment of your Exchange Server structure, showing issues such as mailboxes by size, logon activity by user account, and inactive mailboxes. You can schedule the modest useful report to run automatically, for example, every night. This gives you a regular assessment of Exchange Server, letting you secure and clean up accounts.

The Exchange Reporter Plus package produces log messages, which can be stored and archived and also forwarded to your SIEM tool. The system also includes a monitoring dashboard that watches over the resources that your Exchange Server uses, such as memory and CPU activity.

You can set up performance thresholds that will trigger alerts if they are breached. These alerts can be forwarded to technicians through email or SMS.

ManageEngine Exchange Reporter Plus is available for installation on Windows Server or you can add it to your Azure account through the Azure Marketplace. The system is organized into three plans: Free, Standard, and Professional. The Free edition is the same as the Standard plan but with a limit on the number of mailboxes that it will manage, which is 25. You can bet the Professional edition on a 60-day free trial. If you choose not to buy at the end of the trial period, your implementation will switch over to the Free edition.

  • Maintenance scanning and reports

  • Compliance reporting

  • Security logging

  • Performance alerts

  • Doesn’t include task automation

ManageEngine Exchange Reporter Plus Access 60-day FREE Trial

4. Proofpoint Essentials

The Proofpoint Essential email archiving system has a 10-year time horizon. That means each email can remain in the archive for 10 years before being aged out. This is an online service, so it will protect all of your business’s emails from damaging disasters on your premises.

  • Malware scanning
  • Spam and phishing detection
  • Long-term archiving

Emails are encrypted in the archive, but Proofpoint systems ensure that each email is readily available on-demand in order to comply with auditing and legal access requirements.

The store accepts emails together with all associated attachments. Those emails get indexed so that they can be easily identified through the system’s search facility.

The system allows you to set different retention policies for different categories of email. The search facilities in the package are tailored to ease the work of auditing and legal teams. This means they don’t have to tie up technicians working for the company in order to gain access to information about the archive and individual emails.

Proofpoint Essentials also includes a continuity service that provides online inboxes for staff should your primary mail server goes down. The continuity service can provide cover for 30 days and will update the mail server with missed emails when it comes back online.

The Proofpoint system is cloud-based and acts as a gateway to your mail server. The service blocks spam, phishing, malware, and impersonator emails. It also enables DLP monitoring of outbound emails. Proofpoint Essentials is available on a 30-day free trial.

  • Combines email archiving and security into one package

  • Can retain emails for up to 10 years, great for compliance

  • Ideal for small to medium-sized businesses

  • Offers URL validation to help stop phishing attempts

  • Could use more customization options

  • Would like to see an encryption feature added to help companies comply with standards such as HIPAA

5. Topsec Email Archiving

Topsec Email Archiving is a cloud-based service from a company that offers a range of email security products. The archiving service is organized to comply with all EU and US data protection legislation. Emails are stored in an encrypted format, but can still be searched and accessed easily by authorized users. The account holder can grant different access rights to each user accessing the emails in storage. All-access events are logged for data security auditing.

  • Event logging
  • Archiving and revival
  • Business continuity

Archiving can be scheduled to occur automatically and emails can be pulled back either individually or in bulk. This is an excellent service for organizations on both sides of the Atlantic.

Topsec also offers a continuity service and an email gateway system that blocks the delivery of spam emails and email-borne malware. The services channels both incoming and outgoing emails and gives client companies the opportunity to enforce content policies, and spot data theft attempts.

6. Barracuda Essentials

  • Completely web-based service makes onboarding easy

  • Acts as an edge service, redirecting mail flow for processing

  • Doesn’t overwhelm you with features, additional services comes as optional add-ons

  • Filtering can be time-consuming, would like to see more bulk configuration options

  • Make it easier to release emails from spam

Barracuda Essentials is a bundle of three cloud services: a secure email gateway, an archiving service, and a continuity service.

  • Business continuity
  • Email archive indexing
  • Compliance auditing

The archiving service is fully compliant with US and EU legal requirements. The email archive gets indexed for speedy e-discovery through a search engine built into the storage environment. Retention policies can be varied according to email content. Identified email needed for a legal process can be subjected to a “legal hold” status, which preserves them from tampering.

The secure gateway acts as a continuity service by retaining all passed-through emails for 96 hours. All company inboxes are replicated on the Barracuda server and employees can access their emails during outages of the main mail server through a web browser. The gateway mail system also enables employees to send and compose emails on the company’s domain. When the primary mail server returns to service, the Barracuda system will update it with the emails that arrived during its offline period.

The secure email gateway blocks the delivery of spam emails and emails containing malware, phishing, and impersonator attacks.

You can get a 14-day free trial of Barracuda Essentials.

  • Flexible deployment options include on-premise, cloud, and hybrid cloud configurations

  • Can redirect DDoS attacks away from network infrastructure

  • Includes email encryption for added security

  • Would like to see more data visualization in the interface for NOCs

  • Port mapping feature could be made more user friendly

7. ArcTitan

ArcTitan by Titan HQ is designed to work with Office 365. This cloud storage solution adds encryption, indexing, and a search facility to serve e-Discovery legal requirements. The system conforms with all of the major EU and USA data security standards, including GDPR.

  • Fast revival
  • Covers Office 365
  • Preserves user accounts

Emails are protected with encryption during transfers between your mail server and the archive. The system requires individual user accounts, each of which can have customized access permissions. Emails can be restored to your primary mail server from the archive on-demand, whether individually, or in bulk.

The service is priced by subscription and is available in two editions: ArcTitan Cloud Email Archive and ArcTitan for Service Providers. Titan HQ offers ArcTitan on a free trial.

  • Offers message encryption as well as local indexing

  • Designed to support major compliance standards such as HIPAA and GDPR

  • Email recovery can be done per message or in bulk

  • Designed for 365, integration into other platforms isn’t as smooth

  • Would like to see more custom controls over end-user access to settings

8. modusCloud Email Archiving

The modusCloud family of cloud services is provided by Vircom. The Email Archiving service will integrate with your on-premises mail server and also with Office 365. The archives are encrypted and all communication with your primary mail server is also protected by encryption. The archives are frozen to ensure the emails cannot be tampered with. However, all emails can be easily accessed thanks to indexing and an integrated search facility in the dashboard.

  • 10-year archives
  • Archive indexing and searching
  • Change blocking

The archives of modusCloud use a 10-year time horizon for all of the emails that it stores. If an audit or legal e-Discovery takes place, searches can issue a hold on the discovered pertinent emails to ensure that they cannot be deleted from the archive.

Other email services offered in the modusCloud suite are a continuity service and a secure email gateway that blocks spam and malware. Vircom offers modusCloud Email Archiving on a 30-day free trial.

  • Simple interface makes it easy to spot patterns and issues quickly

  • Provides link verification and attachment scanning

  • Offers email archiving alongside email monitoring

  • Protects archives through encryption

  • Can take some time to train the system to reduce false positives

9. Hornetsecurity Email Archiving

Hornetsecurity provides a range of email security services from the cloud, including spam and malware protection, email encryption, email continuity, and email archiving.

  • Malware protection
  • Spam and phishing blocking
  • Business continuity

The Hornetsecurity Email Archiving system protects email stores with encryption, making unauthorized access impossible. All incoming and outgoing emails get added to the archive automatically as they pass through the Hornetsecurity server on the way to or from your mail server. This means that the service also acts as a backup system. This enables you to immediately restore any or all lost emails on your primary mail server. Archives can easily be searched for e-Discovery and emails can be stored for up to 10 years.

10. Intradyn Email Archiver

  • Operates solely in the cloud, making it easy to scale

  • Archiving is easy to setup and runs passively

  • Archives can be stored and searched through for up to 10 years

  • Can act as an archive or a backup disaster recovery solution

  • Support could use improvement, specifically faster response times

The Intradyn Email Archiver is a very comprehensive service that acts as an immediate backup service as well. The system doesn’t include replacement inboxes for continued access in times of mail server outage, so it can’t be treated as a continuity service. However, as all incoming and outgoing emails are stored in the system automatically, it could be used for disaster recovery.

  • Backup and archiving
  • Business continuity
  • Redaction

All of the features of Intradyn were designed with legal requirements in mind. Archives are encrypted for security and also emailed for quick access with an integrated search facility. The system includes a legal hold function. Two very nice extras that few other email archiving services have are a redacting tool and a review and commenting utility, both of which leave the original email untouched.

Select an email archiving solution

This list of recommendations has some very well-planned archiving solutions for email. All of these tools were designed with legal requirements in mind and should keep your company safe from fines for non-compliance. Take advantage of the free trials that many of these services offer to put your top choices to the test.

  • All incoming and outgoing emails can be set to automatically be stored

  • Encryption and other security measures are implemented by default

  • The interface is sleek and easy to use

  • Cannot provide inbox access during mail server outages

  • Would like to see more services around email continuity and disaster recovery

Image: Email Pile from Pixabay. Public domain.