Content Archiving, Email Archiving, eDiscovery, Recovery, & Storage Management for Exchange

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Mimosa NearPoint™ is a next generation content archiving solution for immediate email and file system archiving, eDiscovery, recovery, disaster recovery and storage management in a single solution.

The NearPoint software solution for email archiving is based on standard Microsoft® technologies, and runs on standard Intel servers. This application-intelligent solution provides:

• deep integration with Exchange and Outlook for seamless end-user access to messaging content
  
• effortless deployment
  
• zero foot print on production Exchange Servers or desktops.
  
• instant search and access to email that has been protected, archived, and extended via a standard Microsoft Outlook or Outlook Web Access user interface.

Administrators also benefit as the application performs immediate restores and configure policies using the standard Microsoft Management Console.

Key Content Archiving Benefits

• NearPoint performs continuous capture of Exchange data, metadata, and context, including all email, folders, deletions, calendars, contacts, notes, tasks, and more.
  
• Mimosa NearPoint minimizes risks and costs associated with legal discovery through its comprehensive eDiscovery solution.
  
• NearPoint protects against data loss and allows local recovery of Exchange information stores, mailboxes, and individual messages and disaster recovery of Exchange data to a standby Exchange Server.
  
• NearPoint optimizes Exchange mailbox storage by reducing the load attachments put on Exchange. Offline email stored in PST files can be easily migrated into the NearPoint archive.
  
• NearPoint Deployment Advantage™ means that the system does not require agents on Exchange Server and zero client software are needed for advanced search and archive access.
  
• NearPoint streamlines data migration from legacy Exchange versions, including 5.5, 2000, and 2003, to Exchange 2007.

Continuous Application Shadowing and One Pass Protection™

Mimosa NearPoint incorporates an innovative data capture method called Continuous Application Shadowing™ which captures Exchange log files the instant they are committed to disk and stores them “off-host” on NearPoint.

Mimosa NearPoint does not rely on SMTP, MAPI or Microsoft Exchange Journaling to gather messages for archival; rather it uses a proprietary method called One Pass Protection™. With this method, N earPoint incorporates an innovative data capture method called Continuous Application Shadowing™. Continuous Application Shadowing captures Exchange log files the instant they are committed to disk and stores them “off-host” on NearPoint. Application Shadowing is an application-intelligent process and blocks corruption from the backup copy. All email content extracted from the log files is indexed and stored with single-instance storage. Application Shadowing captures complete Exchange mailbox information, as well as email stored offline in PST files and all email content found in public folders—a major advantage for eDiscovery and Exchange recovery.

Smart Message Extraction

Mimosa NearPoint utilizes a method called Smart Message Extraction to process Exchange message data for archival. Smart Message Extraction runs entirely on the NearPoint server and places no burden on Exchange. Each time transaction log files are received on NearPoint and applied to the full Exchange database replica, Smart Message Extraction automatically runs and processes the data for archival. The first step of the Smart Message Extraction process is to break each individual message into its major components – header, body and attachment (if one exists). Each component is indexed, compressed and stored in NTFS. Next, Smart Message Extraction catalogs the property information for each message and stores it in a Microsoft SQL Server Desktop Engine (MSDE) or can leverage an existing Microsoft SQL Server database. This rich message information includes context information for folders, permissions, flags and rich text and it includes a record if the message was opened, edited, replied, forwarded or deleted. Mimosa calls the database that stores all this metadata information the Indexed Object Repository. The Indexed Object Repository is the “heart” of the email archive. Using the information it contains, it is possible to quickly search the archive and view complete mailboxes at any point-in-time.

Multi-Node Grid Architecture

Mimosa NearPoint's Multi-Node Grid Architecture is the most scalable architecture in the email archive industry and is provided standard in NearPoint. Utilizing a superscalar or superpipelined grid, NearPoint can support systems ranging from 100 mailboxes to tens of thousands of mailboxes in a single system. A hot-plug modular architecture allows servers and storage to be added or taken away as required to match performance challenges, without breaking the logical consistency of the archive information—an important capability for eDiscovery. Archive storage capacity grows on demand automatically, and default configuration and wizard-driven menus simplify deployment and management.

eDiscovery

Mimosa NearPoint minimizes risks associated with email and file system litigation readiness with a comprehensive eDiscovery solution, going beyond basic email to include every aspect of a mailbox—including public folders, offline PST files, calendars, contacts, notes, and more. Using the NearPoint Self-Service Access search tools available in Outlook and OWA, end users and auditors can quickly search complete archive information. For advanced legal discovery and workflow, the NearPoint eDiscovery Option is available. Mimosa NearPoint speeds legal discovery and increases search accuracy by providing a single location to search all current and historical email information.

Exchange Data Protection and Disaster Recovery

Mimosa NearPoint performs continuous data protection for Exchange data and supports rapid recovery of Exchange at all levels, including automated disaster recovery, full database recovery, mailbox recovery, and individual message restores. Exchange administrators perform database and mailbox recoveries using the NearPoint administrator console, while individual message restores are performed by users themselves via Outlook. The NearPoint DR Option supports automated disaster recovery and service recovery for Exchange and the archive.

Storage Management and PST Archiving

Using NearPoint, administrators define policies that allow mailboxes on Exchange Servers to be extended to the NearPoint server using parameters such as message size, age, and mailbox quota. Online and offline users have complete access to extended messages as they would normally through Outlook and OWA. For managing offline email contained in PST files, the NearPoint PST Archiving Option crawls and uploads PST files to the NearPoint archive, where they are centrally managed and searched for email discovery. PST files can be automatically deleted after they are uploaded to the archive or remain as files managed by NearPoint.

Contact Mimosa Systems

Call us at 408-970-9070 to learn how NearPoint can provide you the next-generation email archiving solution for managing all your Exchange data.