Organisations need to manage and protect millions of electronic records - including files, emails and instant messages - and the volume of information is growing exponentially.

With over 90% of information created today is in electronic format, the management of electronic records has become a critical business issue. How that information is managed and protected has significant business, technology and legal ramifications.

Leading analysts report that many employees are wasting up to 25 percent of their time searching for data and recreating information that already exists. This loss of productivity and increased cost of storing redundant data can have a major impact on a company’s bottom line.

The duplication of data also increases organisational risk as it provides more opportunity for individuals to gain access or alter critical business information assets.

We focus on helping clients maximise the value of their information assets, while meeting retention and information security requirements. This is achieved through an assessment of current practices, workflow and systems.

Effective information security management is more than just fighting fires; it is about determining the best way to protect information assets. Organisations have implemented disjointed security strategies that do not create an environment in which an effective information security programme can thrive.

We provide strategic information security services that can be customised to meet your business needs, either as organisation-wide programmes or for individual business units.

Our ISMS consulting is intended for organisations that are growing (organically or through acquisition) or for an executive tasked with the responsibility of developing an information security programme. Based on the newly published ISO 27001 standard; the programme provides a structure to information security to successfully guard data against loss of confidentiality, integrity, or availability. This programme provides a framework in which information security can be managed so that organisations are no longer struggling to meet this growing challenge.

Organisations increasingly have to connect to partners and collaborate in order to be innovative and generate new sources of profit. Business units may be sent offshore, entire departments insourced or projects outsourced to third party vendors. This has created a flatter, more efficient business landscape but has also created new risks. Our vulnerability and risk assessments are for organisations that have recognised the value of their information assets and understand that they are crucial to their survival.

Our consultants employ a proven engagement methodology to meet your business and risk management goals. We identify where your organisation is vulnerable to information leakage or spoliation and not just where your IT infrastructure is weak.

Our Tape extraction services enable our clients to quickly assess the contents of backup tapes at a fraction of the cost of traditional tape restoration services.

Powered by Index Engines' patent-pending indexing technology, our tape extraction services provide the following capabilities:

Expedited Visibility of Content: Convert backup tape contents into a searchable repository; no need to install the original backup software or restore to a native environment.

Streamlined Extraction Process: Select only the data that needs to be extracted and the system automatically does the rest!

Reduced Time and Cost: A multitude of backup tapes can be processed to ensure a fast turnaround.

Mitigated Risk: Risk is mitigated with a comprehensive index including full content, file metadata, security details and user attributes for all electronic records from backup tapes.

This new approach enables clients to perform early case assessment for legal matters of their historical data that exists in off-line and near off-line repositories.  Clients can pinpoint and extract relevant data from tapes without needing to install and run the original backup software.

As a result, clients can rapidly locate the data they require without restoring the entire tape contents, indexing the files found and then searching from scratch. The high speed indexing option provides a comprehensive index including all relevant files, file metadata, and user/security identifiers for all offline data.

Features

• Direct indexing of offline content at the speed of tape. Supports all common tape drives including DLT, LTO, and tape libraries.
• Direct indexing of data in popular backup formats including: Backup Exec, NetBackup, NetWorker, TSM and ArcServe. No need to have the backup software installed.
• Full text and metadata indexing of unstructured files and email allowing for comprehensive search results.
• Automatic management of unordered tapes; sorting and cataloguing all tapes in the library.
• No metadata spoilage, data is indexed directly off tape and not modified. All access and modified dates/times are kept intact.
• "Internet like" query tools for Boolean, similar and metadata search of tape contents to find all relevant files and email.
• Dynamically de-duplication query capability returns only unique files when searching, eliminating duplicate files and email.
• Reconstruction of files to allow full review of content without ever restoring the original file from tape.
• Extract files and emails (individual emails or a full database) from tape without the use of the backup software.

Storage optimisation is only possible by first understanding the content that resides within the organisation.  This is a major challenge due to large volumes of data and complex infrastructures.

Though challenging, the benefits of storage optimisation such as simplified data management and cost reduction are achievable goals.

Our solution is flexible and efficient and can integrate into any environment, without burdening the network, to perform high speed indexing of all files and email.

Built on Index Engines patent-pending technology, our solution is scalable, fast, comprehensive and cost-efficient.  The end result is a simplified and streamlined management of the storage infrastructure.

When considering a records and information management (RIM) or archive platform it is important to include both online and offline data that is typically archived off the network. This will provide a comprehensive view of all information assets required by internal business units such as legal or compliance.

Records management systems are only as good as the data they store. RIM platforms are either designed to pull data from the network or require user intervention to consolidate data for safe keeping. Records from near-line repositories on the network and on backup tapes are usually ignored, making these RIM solutions incomplete.

Legal often requires information dating father back than the RIM system contains. Most archive solutions are only useful for data generated from the time they are launched.

Without including historical data contained in offline and near-line repositories, you are implementing a records management strategy that does not include all of the backup tapes and the system will be incomplete.

 Our solution creates a comprehensive repository that unlocks this difficult to access data.  The information is then indexed, searchable and the relevant data can then be extracted to be added into the RIM solution thus providing a full view of organisational content and fulfilling legal and compliance regulations.