ANTenna Blog -- Networking & Communications

How many email messages were in your In Box this morning? 10? 20? 50? 100? 150? As the number continues to grow, enterprises are finding it more and more difficult to manage them effectively.

Because of the significant growth in email systems, small and medium businesses have been searching for new tools to help manage their messages. Problems arose because the volume was so large that no one could find the right data. In addition, they were keeping so much information that their storage requirements were going up astronomically. Lately, the government and regulatory agencies have been demanding that companies put more checks in place to ensure that sensitive information is safeguarded. Archiving systems are designed to help companies store and manage these items more effectively. This fledgling market has blossomed into a multibillion business.

The growth attracted Trend Micro, which announced the Trend Micro Message Archiver. The solution enables employees to access any archived email without leaving Microsoft Outlook. The product is also designed for simple installation; the company says the average time is about 30 minutes. The archiving system features forensics technology that uses digital fingerprinting and encryption to ensure that emails are authentic and un-altered.

While Trend Micro may have a product with strong features, the company may find it difficult to create a niche in the email archiving arena. Because the product segment has become so important, it has attracted formidable competitors, such as EMC and Google. Trend Micro has done well itself – garnering about $850 million in 2007 – but does not have the name recognition or resources of those companies.

How fast has your email message volume been growing? Do you have an archiving solution in place now? How effective or ineffective is it?