ZANTAZ has today announced that Northcliffe Media, one of the biggest regional newspaper publishers in the UK, has chosen ZANTAZ Enterprise Archive Solution (EAS) to consolidate its 17 email data centres into two, while migrating from Exchange 5.5 to Exchange 2003, and to make possible an efficient and effective search and retrieval solution for electronic information and emails.
ZANTAZ EAS will allow Northcliffe Media to clean-up and reduce the size of approximately 7,500 Microsoft Exchange mailboxes to ensure that the migration will be completed as quickly and effectively as possible.
After the migration, Northcliffe Media will use EAS to increase the efficiency of the company’s knowledge management, document retention and electronic disclosure processes. Northcliffe Media will also be able to optimise storage by removing duplicated email and compressing all mail into a consolidated near-line archive store, thereby reducing the company’s email storage requirements by up to 90 per cent.
Additionally, EAS will allow Northcliffe Media to retrieve messages quickly and dramatically ease the cost and time penalties associated with dispute resolution proceedings if, for example, it became involved in a contract disagreement with suppliers, or with other media companies during merger and acquisition activity. Efficient knowledge management and e-disclosure processes will also help Northcliffe if it is accused of publishing libellous information and becomes involved in a court case.
Kieran Head at Northcliffe Media, comments: “There are three main reasons why we need to implement an email archiving solution. Firstly, it is paramount that the migration and consolidation process will not disrupt the overall operation of the company – the clean-up of our 7,500 mailboxes will enable us to continue business as usual. Secondly, we’ll be able to save a lot of money because our storage requirements for Exchange will decrease by at least 50 per cent. Finally, we want to be prepared to be able to disclose any electronic information as quickly as possible in the event of any unexpected disputes or disagreements.”
Ian Garland, Storage Business Development Consultant at Servo Computer Services Ltd, ZANTAZ’s implementation partner, continues: “Our team is currently undertaking a series of trials in a virtual environment, which will emulate Northcliffe’s live Exchange environment. This proof of concept exercise will streamline the processes used during the archiving of Exchange 5.5 mailboxes and the migration to the consolidated Exchange 2003 farms at Leicester and Plymouth data centres. The objectives are for the implementation to occur seamlessly, whilst helping the business to understand the effects on users so this can be communicated prior to live rollout. Servo is committed to delivering a solution that will not only greatly reduce the time to consolidate Northcliffe 17 Exchange servers but by also bringing long term benefits to Northcliffe, through storage optimisation, knowledge retention and the reduction of cost in supporting litigation and compliancy requirements.”
Glenn Perachio, EMEA Director at ZANTAZ, comments: “The drivers for companies to store and manage email more systematically and cost-effectively are multiplying because of the way in which all companies depend on electronic information. Northcliffe Media, like many businesses, is realising the many benefits that email archiving can deliver – not just in terms of cost and process efficiencies, but in terms of regulatory compliance and corporate governance.”