Cloud-based Archive Migrations

This will vary depending on your chosen hosted archive service.

For example, Transvault transfers data directly over the network to Microsoft Office 365 using the EWS protocol.

For extremely large data transfers, or where there is no existing API, a typical strategy is to store data on removable media in a neutral file format such as PST or EML files. In this case TransVault can be configured to package and name the exported data according to the conventions stipulated by the hosted vendor.

The removable media would then be shipped to the hosted service provider for ingestion.

To ensure peace of mind, Transvault creates a full report of exactly what data has been extracted from your system to be handed to the service provider.  This further acts as evidence of due diligence in support of future eDiscovery requests.

Mimecast does not as yet publish a public API for large scale data extraction.

You can extract a given mailbox or set of data from Mimecast by using Administrator rights to export the results of an eDiscovery search to PST or EML files.

This, however, is a very lengthy and manually intensive approach that is not suitable for large volumes.

Another approach is to request a bulk-export of emails.  This data will typically presented in a single-instanced stream of emails in PST or Zipped EML files.

The challenge with this is that your emails will not exported according to individual user mailboxes and and does not preserve any folder structure.

Transvault is able to take this pool of emails and reconstruct it into separate user mailboxes.  It can also create a new email folder structure based on meta data such as ‘Sender’ and  ‘Date’ to give users the most meaningful way to navigate their migrated email records. Find out more about our Mimecast migration service.

At the same time you can output data in the required format for ingestion into your new target cloud service, be it Office 365 or elsewhere.

Many hosted archive vendors will ingest your data from PST files, but don’t underestimate what is involved in
manually exporting and preparing your legacy data into this format.

Although many archive systems have some kind of ‘export to PST files’ function, there are common problems
associated with such tools, including:

• They’re labour-Intensive – While fine for exporting 1 or 2 mailboxes, native export tools are not
  suitable for bulk movement of data out your archive. There’s no batching capability or automation and
  you will need to dedicate a member of staff to constantly monitor the entire process which may take
  many months.
• It’s slow – ‘Native’ extraction tools are typically single-threaded tools. We suggest you time the
  extraction of a single, average-sized mailbox.
• There’s no reporting – There is no proof or audit log of what data has been extracted out of your
  system.
• There’s no error handling – If a mailbox extraction fails owing to a corrupted email, the extraction will
  stop with no indication of which item was corrupted and no ability to pick up where the extraction left
  off.
• Important meta-data is lost – There is no support for migrating BCC’d and distribution list recipients
  from journal archives, no protection of retention dates, no ability to re-write addresses, etc.
• Large PST files are prone to corruption – This creates problems for organizations trying to extract the
  contents of very large mailbox archives or Journal mailbox archives.
• Lack of flexibility – Native extractions typically extract an entire mailbox, offering no granularity, such
  as extracting only the last 5 year’s worth of data.

By comparison Transvault offers automated extraction, with full error-logging, unattended operation,
reporting and unparalleled flexibility and data fidelity. It can also be configured to package PSTs in the
recommended format, label them with the correct header information, split out large mailboxes/journal
archives into multiple linked PSTs, etc.

A Transvault-led migration service can also save you money: A recent costing exercise based on hiring a temp
(at $18 per hour) to manually extract data to PST files, and an average migration time of 3 hours indicated a
cost of around $54 per mailbox (including manual auditing, checking etc). Bear in mind this is just ‘half’ of the
process as the contents of PST files then need to be ingested into the target archive. This means manual
migration costs can reach over $100 per mailbox.

Transvault offers the fastest and safest migration times in the industry. This is confirmed by the many Partners we have that have direct, project-based experience of Transvault vs other migration solutions.

Transvault’s multi-threaded, multi-server capability means that multiple extraction and ingestion pipes can be set up between your source and target system, thus driving your environment to capacity. You can also process a single mailbox using multiple migration threads – ideal for processing large archives and journals in the fastest possible times.

Transvault can also be run in the Cloud to reduce network latency.

It is important to note that achieving best performance is always dependent on environmental
factors such as:

• Available network bandwidth
• The speed of the storage subsystem on which the legacy archive sits (if direct/API access is available)
• The time your chosen cloud platform vendor takes to extract or upload emails.

Your chosen archive migration partner can establish a proof of concept (POC) to establish likely throughput rates in your specific environment.

Depending on your chosen cloud vendors, options for extracting data out of an existing cloud service can often be limited, time-consuming and costly.

For example, if you wanted to extract a given mailbox or set of data from Mimecast, one option is to use Administrator rights to export the results of an eDiscovery search to PST or EML files. This, however, is a very lengthy and manually intensive approach that is not suitable for large volumes.

Another approach is to request a bulk-export of archived data from your cloud vendor. This data will typically be presented in a single-instanced stream of emails in PST or Zipped EML files.

The challenge with this is that your emails will not be exported according to individual user mailboxes and the original folder structure is lost.

Transvault is able to take this pool of emails and reconstruct it into separate user mailboxes. It can also create a new email folder structure based on meta data such as ‘Sender’ and ‘Date’ to give users the most meaningful way to navigate their migrated email records.

At the same time you can output data in the required format for ingestion into your new target cloud service.

Note that Microsoft Office 365 offers a great deal more flexibility and capability for moving your archives and for maintaining the folder structure of individual’s mailboxes.

As described earlier in this document, Transvault eliminates the opportunity for human error. It also includes complete auditing of the extraction, and depending on the target cloud vendor, the complete end-to-end migration process.

For example, when transfers can be carried out directly over the network to Microsoft Office 365, comprehensive reports show 1:1 mappings of the ID of the item in the source archive and the ID of the new item as it is moved to the destination, enabling you to demonstrate of a complete ‘Chain of Custody’ for the data while undergoing migration.

Where migration is via removable media in an interim file format, Transvault maintains a full audit of what is being presented to the service provider, demonstrating due diligence on your part and acting as a detailed record in the event of a future incident where emails cannot be found or recovered in the ‘cloud archive’.

Importantly, Transvault is also the only solution available that can preserve BCC’d recipients and distribution list information from Journal mailbox archives. These messages may be part of legal proceedings or may be subject to regulatory requirements, so the loss of such vital information could be extremely costly and potentially damaging.

For organizations wishing to create a consolidated ‘journal’ of certain legacy emails (e.g. emails belonging to leavers, or emails older than 7 years), Transvault offers a new de-duplication feature that is able to significantly reduce the amount of data to be transferred to the destination archive platform. It also improves storage utilization.

A field in the Transvault database is used to store the results of a hash calculation for each item migrated. If Transvault detects an item that has the same hash value, it does not migrate the item again.

Savings are dependent on the typical number of cc’d recipients at the clients site. So, for example, if the average number of cc’d recipients is 4, the amount of data to be migrated will be reduced by up to 75%.

This capability is particularly useful when migrating to hosted archives where the network represents a bottleneck. It is also desirable where storage space is chargeable in the destination archive.

Supported source archives include:

• ZANTAZ EAS
• Daegis AXSOne
• Autonomy Message Manager (formerly CA Message Manager)
• Veritas Enterprise Vault

Other platforms may also be supported – please call for details.

The single-instanced data can be written to all Transvault-supported destination archives, and is typically directed into one or more specified mailboxes. For example, you could elect to migrate ‘leavers’ from a given department into a departmental archive mailbox with the relevant access rights.

Note that this service does not provide an envelope journaling capability (i.e. alias lists are not expanded and any BCC’d recipients are not captured), and therefore should not be used where preservation of this data is required.

Working with Transvault solutions gives you the choice of making your move on-premises or in the Cloud.

If you have existing server bandwidth and your migration is within the same location or domain, then a fully on-prem approach, with the option of local or remote control, may be the way to go.

Alternatively, you can make your move in Microsoft Azure.

Using Transvault in Azure means there’s no hardware to set up in advance. You also have the added benefits of built-in resilience, load balancing and distribution for geographically distributed locations.

Plus, if you’re moving to a cloud-based service, such as Office 365, network latency is inherently reduced, resulting in faster data transfers.

Whichever route you take, your move can be managed remotely, and you can check on migration progress remotely and ‘on the go’ using Transvault’s ToolBox App from a smart phone or a tablet.