Tech & Learning - June 2008 - (Page 49)

MAKING THE GRADE includes Email Archiving Since December 2006, when new federal rules went into effect concerning retrieval of electronically stored information (ESI), school districts are scrambling to determine if they are in compliance. The new Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP) mean, essentially, that districts need to reexamine their data storage, search and retrieval systems, or risk being penalized in civil suits. Yet even now, months and months after the amendments went into effect, many districts are not prepared. The volume of email alone makes retention and storage a daunting task. A large Georgia school district saw traffic leap from 130,000 inbound emails per month in 2006 to one million per month in 2008. SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION OF TECH&LEARNING Lightspeed Systems’ All Inclusive Security Solution would need to rebuild an entire Exchange 2000 server in order to retrieve and read the data stored on tape. records, McMurray decided to implement Total Traffic Control (TTC) Email Archiving from Lightspeed Systems. “After setting Growing message size and attachments create other challenges. Historically, storage demands have been met with backup tape. Backup tapes are not easily searched, however, creating expensive disruptions when a specific message needs to be retrieved. One California school district estimated the cost in excess of $20,000 after discovering it “After setting the policy to archive email for two years, Lightspeed's email archiving puts the district on solid ground for any future inquiries” The new rules “require parties to identify sources of information that are not searched because they are not reasonably accessible and allows discovery from such sources on a showing of good cause, subject to judicial supervision,” according to Lee H. Rosenthal, U.S. District Judge for the Southern District of Texas. In other words, districts may get off the hook if they can't easily provide the required ESI, or they may not, if the requesting party can convince the judge there is a compelling reason for their discovery. Without a reliable system of message archiving in place, districts may find the costs of producing information to be greater than the damages claimed. Efficient archiving can also help districts avoid lawsuits in the first place; the right email produced at the right time can resolve potential legal problems before they occur. Mark McMurray, technology coordinator for Frenchtown School District in Montana, knows the difficulty—and the importance—of retrieving electronic data. In 2006, districts near Frenchtown were subpoenaed by a politician who suspected that school email accounts were used to defeat his initiative. After watching his peers struggle with producing email the policy to archive email for two years, Lightspeed's email archiving puts the district on solid ground for any future inquiries,” says McMurray. Email Archiving allows Frenchtown's IT department to easily search for email and attachments sent internally and externally through the Exchange 2003 server. User mailboxes are not altered in any way, and the entire process remains transparent to the user. Implementing archiving and storage solutions such as Lightspeed's Email Archiving has other benefits for school districts beyond FRCP compliance. Email has become a part of the organizational knowledge base by virtue of the vast amount of intelligence that is not replicated in any other data. As Michael Osterman, president of messaging and collaboration research firm Osterman Research, explains, “Companies will see the value of email as a source of knowledge increasing, primarily because this will be one of the key secondary benefits that organizations derive after they have deployed an archiving solution.” For more information and additional case studies, please visit: www.lightspeedsystems.com http://www.lightspeedsystems.com http://www.lightspeedsystems.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Technology & Learning - June 2008

Technology & Learning - June 2008 Contents Editor's Desk News & Trends They Said It: What Tech&Learning Insiders Are Writing Online Junket Justifiers Back Office Business Students of the World Unite! Get Small for Fall Summer Reading for School Leaders They Can Hear You Now What's New - NECC Highlights and More Leader of the Year Profile

Technology & Learning - June 2008

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