PST Capture
PST files are created by end users to store their emails and keep them accessible. These underground archives are not the best primary storage location for mailbox data for a variety of reasons. PST files:
- Need to be stored locally on users’ workstations and are therefor difficult to access and backup
- Are not supported by Microsoft when hosted on network shares
- Consume more drive space than equivalent content on an Exchange server
- Cannot support Single Instance Storage (SIS)
- Cannot be accessed from multiple sources simultaneously
- Lack strong security
- Are prone to corruption when they grow in size
The PAM for Exchange PST Importer detects, collects, uploads, and archives PST files to protect them and make them available, even when working remotely.
All this is done without changing the end user’s Outlook folder structure. They believe they still have PST files but the administrator is working instead with an accessible and searchable archive of those files. This eliminates corrupted files, password-protected files and islands of information.
Benefits of the PST Importer
In our experience, the PST archiving process can be a long and tricky project. Even if PST files reside on network shares it can be difficult to map ownership, a step that typically involves manual intervention.
The Professional Archive Manager for Exchange PST Import Service offers the most comprehensive solution to ingesting PST files we have seen to date. It detects and uploads PST files from local as well as network drives, automatically assigning files to the correct mailbox archive and creating detailed progress reports for administrators. Following upload, users are left with their original PST folder structure in Outlook, with all archived files having been turned into shortcuts.
For staff that used PST files as a means of accessing emails whilst working offline, PAM for Exchange provides a local archive service that creates a copy of archived email.