Databias slashes HE prices

Databias has cut the price of it's 2GB hosted Exchange by 50%! We stand to be corrected, but at R50 per month we believe that this now makes our entry level Exchange / BlackBerry Enterprise package the cheapest in South Africa. Coupled with our first month no-strings-attached freebie it makes no sense not to try it out.

Unlimited web hosting

We are happy to announce that we have upgraded all our web hosting packages to allow for unlimited bi-directional traffic to or from your website. Thats right, uncapped web hosting is now a reality!

Databias' Partners:

What's in the next issue?

Email branding - subtle marketing in every email.

New 24-hour support number

A new 24-hour support number is now available to all Databias clients: +27 73 900 4800

We're rebranding

Fun fun fun. Databias is currently preparing for the launch of our new brand including a revamped web site sporting some pretty fancy web tech.

Contact Us Today:

Email: info@databias.co.za
Tel: +27 028 316 1981
Fax: +27 086 508 5171
Web: www.databias.co.za
Physical Address:
6 Disa Road, Onrus River, Western Cape, 7201

24-hour support: +27 73 900 4800 / support@databias.co.za

Issue 3 | 5 September 2011

These days businesses depend on high volumes of data running efficiently through their systems. Virtually all businesses require that electronic messaging be a part of their underlying IT infrastructure. As industry and government alike grow continually more reliant on communication, particularly email, this data becomes more valuable. To protect these records, standards and regulations have been tabled. Successful email retention and the ability to respond timeously to legal and informational queries will soon become a legal pre-requisite for large enterprise. Email archiving allows companies to meet regulatory and business records retention requirements by enabling compliance officers to easily search email stored in the archive and perform periodic reviews. Read Jess' artcile below for the layman's low-down on this exciting new ICT topic.

Best wishes,

Matt Faircliff (matt@databias.co.za)
Managing Member - Databias | Enhanced Internet Services

Featured Article

Delete this email, or not. It doesn't matter - it's been archived.
by Jessica Faircliff

Email Archiving is the process of capturing, preserving, and making easily searchable all email traffic to and from a given individual, organisation, or service. It is a systematic approach to saving and protecting the data contained in email messages so it can be accessed quickly at a later date. This is best achieved through a stand-alone IT application that integrates with an enterprise email server, such as Microsoft Exchange or Lotus Domino. These applications index emails and provide quick, searchable access to archived messages.

Why archive?
There are many motivations for enterprises or end-users to invest in an email archiving solution, including regulatory compliance, litigation and legal discovery, email backup and disaster recovery, messaging system and storage optimization as well as monitoring of internal and external email content. With today's compliance legislation and legal discovery rules, it is fast becoming necessary for many IT departments to manage the entire company's email archiving in bulk so specific messages can be located in minutes.

How archiving is performed?
Email archiving solutions capture email content either directly from the email application itself or during transport. These applications typically include indexing and search capabilities, access logs to provide a virtual paper trail in the event an email is subpoenaed, and a lifecycle management component, which acts as kind of a traffic cop for all email coming in to the company. The messages are typically then stored on magnetic disk storage and indexed to simplify future searches.

Litigation and legal discovery
The National Archives is the regulator of all electronic records created in the public sector, however there is no regulator of electronic records for the private sector. It is therefore up to individual organisations to retain and manage their electronic documents in a manner that promotes admissibility, evidentiary strength and satisfies legal and business requirements.

The Acts
There are a number of Acts which pertain to email retention, however as with all legalities, what exactly each one means is rather complicated.

'Email messages, including any attachments, created, received or transmitted in the normal course of an organisation's business, which reflects the functions, business activities and decisions of the organisation are records and should be managed as such', says the Michalson's Guide to Email Management.

Where emails and their attachments are identified as records, they must retain their integrity in terms of their structure, content and context.

Although the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act 25 of 2002 (the ECT Act), does not actually make record retention mandatory, Chapter 3 permits the use of electronic documents, email messages and other forms of electronic information as evidence. It is required, however, that an audit trail of authenticity and integrity of information is shown.

King II, a code which is designed to improve accountability and transparency of JSE listed public companies indicates that organisations need to invest in the technology, people and controls that will ensure that email is retained and managed in a trustworthy fashion. The current best practices and standards also make clear that organisations are expected to manage electronic records in a manner that ensures its accuracy, completeness, reliability, accessibility and integrity.

Ensuring integrity of email requires sound policy, transparent processes and an appropriate records management system. Having a proper information management and record retention and destruction policy in place is key. Security is also paramount as email must be protected against unauthorized access, use, manipulation, destruction or loss.

The best way of ensuring all of this is to use a professional email archiving system.

Access to archived email
Archived email is accessible via a web interface or a mail client plugin. Email can be viewed and downloaded but cannot be deleted or moved from the archive server. Databias' email archiving also ensures that users have continued access to archived email, even when they are away from the office through remote access.

eDiscovery (aka. search)
Databias' optional full-text search capabilities let you find and retrieve email content quickly and reliably. Discovery time and costs are significantly reduced, since access to all email and attachments is unified, regardless of format, location, language, or media type.

Integrity
All emails are stored with a one way cryptographic hash in order to ensure integrity of archived emails.

Backup and disaster recovery
One rather attractive benefit of the Email Archiving system is that Databias clients can request copies of entire email boxes in the event of a disaster (such as a hard drive crash) or loss of data (such as a lost or stolen laptop).

Archive depth and length
Databias offers unlimited depth of archives i.e. there is no limit to the amount of storage space or mails stored on our servers. In line with regulations Databias defaults to storing all emails for a period of five years however this can be extended based on customer requirements.

Benefits of offsite, 3rd party archiving
Archival solutions come in three general categories: dedicated appliances installed on the internal network; packaged software installed on the internal network, leveraging existing shared storage hardware; and software as a service, the hassle free solution. Databias' email archiving falls into the latter category. The secure, web based application allows searching of sent / received mail as well as the ability to monitor all email to or from a domain in real-time.

Site Spotlight

Last FM - www.last.fm

If you haven't yet used up your 50 free songs on Last.fm grab your headphones and get listening. Started in 2002, this UK based site was bought by CBS in 2007 for the tidy sum of £140m. It features a unique music recommendation system called 'audioscrobbling' which plays you songs based on the bands you tell it you like. Basically, it is an excellent way to broaden your musical horizons. Once your 50 songs are done you pay a meagre $3 per month to listen as much as you want.

App of Note

Stellarium for iPhone / iPad - itunes.apple.com

Cuddle up to your loved one with this impressive free stargazing app. Look out for GPS and gyroscope integration in upcoming releases.

Net News

Facebook launches Check-in Deals in SA

Social media giant Facebook has just partnered with local company Habari Media to launch Facebook Check-In Deals, a location based reward system whereby users 'check-in' using their GPS enabled smart phones at participating business' premises. This qualifies them for discounts / rewards offered by the relevant store. Read more about this fascinating new marketing tool at the Bizcommunity article available here.

Tip of the Day

The native BlackBerry MemoPad app replicates all notes you create in Outlook using the BlackBerry Enterprise platform provided by Databias. It's awesome for remembering stuff like your car registration, banking details or the name of your mother-in-law's pet Chihuahua.

Quote of the Day

"The desktop computer industry is dead. Innovation has virtually ceased. Microsoft dominates with very little innovation .... Apple lost. The desktop market has entered the dark ages, and it's going to be in the dark ages for the next 10 years, or certainly for the rest of this decade." - Steve Jobs, Wired Magazine, February 1996