Frequently organizations find that locally stored and unmanaged PST or NSF files are incompatible with good governance, compliance and security. There is resistance from the user community to eliminate PST and NSF files because of the perceived loss of flexibility or loss of control over the organization of their folders. Given users an alternative to personal archives in a centrally managed, de-duplicated email archiving system makes EMC EmailXtender User Directed Archiving a powerful combination that allows:

• Users to retain emails for an extended period of time in their inbox without having to concern themselves with backup or central management functions of those folders.
• Compliance officials can enforce corporate retention policies with pre-defined retention periods associated at the folder level.
• Email administrators can build their management procedures around the central archive for retention, backup, security, and capacity planning knowing that they are managing all the enterprise email content.
• Investigators and administrators can improve accuracy of discovery searches and hold all responsive emails within a dedicated folder in the tamper-proof archive.

The value of having enterprise-wide email content centrally archived and easily searchable cannot be underestimated. Similarly, providing a means for users to organize data using familiar methods without substantial re-training is also invaluable. User Directing Archiving can meet the needs of a diverse user community, balancing flexibility, effectiveness and central control.