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Key Features

Essential has been working with email archiving products for over a decade.  Over this time our customers have faced numerous archiving, retention and discovery challenges and it has been our job to provide the best possible solutions and support. 

Here are just some of the key features that we believe set Professional Archive Manager for Exchange apart and that will ensure a successful solution for your organisation:


Clientless access - without loss of user transparency

PAM for Exchange offers an excellent thin client that requires no desktop install or Outlook add-in.

Users of the thin client have transparent access to archived items via shortcuts that 'look and feel' just like regular Outlook emails: clicking on a shortcut retrieves the email instantly. You can even right-click forward without having to retrieve emails first. We like this feature a lot as other clientless solutions we've seen have introduced a 2-step retrieval process or other complexity that confuses end users and creates support issues.

Users also have access to an advanced search service along with the ability to navigate the contents of their archive folder by folder (enabling them to find items even if they have deleted their copy from within Outlook).

A client install is only required for users that require offline synchronisation support and/or on-demand archiving (which in our experience is rarely used as it can create unplanned network loading).

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Powerful search

Users of both the thin or thick PAM Outlook client have access to fast, powerful search services. The results of a search can be reviewed (cut/pasted, forwarded etc) and optionally restored to Exchange.

As well as searching their own archives, users can search the mailboxes and folders to which they have delegate access rights in Exchange (these are automatically synchronised).

As an alternative to the search engine that ships with PAM, plug-ins enable support for other search engines including Microsoft Enterprise Search.

Maintenance of the search catalogues is minimal and load-balancing and failover for larger sites is easily achieved.

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Low storage overheads

PAM for Exchange uses both compression and single instancing of any duplicate items to reduce the the size of the archive it creates. Single instancing can be achieved regardless of the number of Exchange servers being archived. It can also de-duplicate across archived files and SharePoint content.

PAM for Exchange sites see savings of 70% and beyond in comparison to the equivalent on Exchange, (figure includes the archive search catalogue).

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Fully automated PST archiving

PAM for Exchange includes one of the best PST migration tools we've seen to date.

It automatically detects and gathers PST files from local disks and shared networks, uploading their contents into the archive without going via the Exchange server. It can also automatically map PST file ownership and records all successful imports into a transaction file, eliminating a lot of manual intervention on the part of the administrator.

All this is done without changing the end user’s Outlook folder structure. They believe they still have PST files but instead the content of the file is held centrally in a properly managed and searchable archive of those files. This eliminates corrupted files, password-protected files and islands of information. More>

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Flexible archive & retention policies

PAM for Exchange makes it easy to create and amend archive and retention policies and offers multiple options for meeting operational and compliance needs. For example:

  • Set a threshold or maximum mailbox size limit (e.g. archive to bring within 90% of quota)
  • Archive emails according to age, size, type, or class
  • Store specified emails onto compliant WORM media
  • Configure shortcut size (including the option to defer shotcut creation)
  • Delete shortcuts from Exchange over time according to policies (but leave the archived item intact)

Retention and deletion policies can be defined and executed by mailbox, group, etc.

If you're not sure how long you need to retain items for, PAM for Exchange lets you define your policy at a later date whilst protecting your data from deletion.

At all times emails are protected if they have been put on legal hold as a result of an e-discovery exercise.

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Easy to administer

PAM for Exchange has a user friendly GUI and lots of time saving features. Capabilities our archiving consultants particularly like include:

  • Excellent integration with Active Directory user groups
  • A view of users' archived and unarchived emails enabling quick restores and ad-hoc archiving
  • Very easy to determine the archive permissions a user has (e.g. delegate access rights)
  • Exceptionally fast search of users and email header information
  • Simple archive and search catalogue failover configuration
  • Point and click archive policy setting

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Easy-to-use e-discovery

PAM for Exchange allows authorised staff to respond quickly to any investigation request and produce emails on demand - without undue complexity.

Its easy-to-use discovery client lets non-technical staff search and locate relevant emails and documents in a matter of minutes. Key discovery functions including the ability to add tags and comments, put selected items on legal hold, and export data for further inspection are also supported. More>

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Highly scalable

The PAM architecture is designed so that the job of archiving, indexing, uploading PST files, and serving access to the archive can be easily shared across multiple servers if required.  The search catalogue can also be distributed and replicated to reflect user demand and location and again, is highly scalable.

All archiving tasks can be tuned according to available network bandwidth during the day or week. For example, the initial bulk upload into the archive could be scheduled for weekends.

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Complete lifecycle management & HSM

PAM for Exchange controls the entire lifecycle of every message by way of a built-in Hierarchical Storage Management (HSM) archive engine that is included with the core PAM product. PAM's HSM Engine automatically captures, routes, stores, restores, migrates and deletes email records according to your archive and retention policies.

For example invoice documents could be automatically transferred from HDD to cost effective long-term storage such as tape after 3 years, and then deleted after seven years - unless they are on legal hold.

Each message holds various file and metadata tags that make co-ordinating the management of emails from multiple locations possible.

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Offline archive support

PAM provides remote users with a local copy of the archive so they can be fully productive when they are working offline.

We like this service as it offers a high degree of user control, enabling users to select exactly which folders should be synchronised down and saving both time and local disk space.

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High availability

PAM for Exchange allows administrators to archive in real time to two locations, providing backup on the fly. Archived emails can be retrieved instantly from either location, providing inbuilt failover.

The product also supports continuous off-site replication for deploying data disaster recovery. This archive can be connected to Microsoft Exchange servers that are local, remote, standby or new.

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Integration with other applications

Many companies now use electronic document management and workflow systems and wish to capture emails into these systems.

Professional Archive Manager for Exchange classifies emails using an integrated scripting tool, enabling third party applications such as CRM, ERP or DMS/ECM to import the relevant email and index information stored in a specific location or pool. More>

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