‘Iron Mountain Incorporated’, (NYSE:IRM) a storage services and data protection company, declared at the Storage Expo that for customers in the UK, the IronMountain digital archiving solution for email management was now available.

The company provides a bullet list of the benefits of the “Total Email Management Suite” solution:

  • Automatic email archiving for up to 10 years of secure email storage in a off-site location
  • eDiscovery – Offers eDiscovery and other review tools, giving greater search and analytical ability
  • Continuity service for email – this allows for regular access of email even during disasters. A form of crisis recovery.
  • Spam protection and antivirus protection – IronMountain claims to stop 99 percent of spam, and has what they call a “perfect track record” for stopping viruses. Presumably, a computer virus has never infiltrated.
  • Data Leak Prevention – Allows the detection and prevention of the critical information within emails and attachments from being leaked to unauthorized persons.
  • Retention Management & Litigation Hold – Emails can be retained based upon the content policy of the company to prevent legal problems, or for user preferences.

RichardEllis, Iron Mountain Digital Manager (for UK & Ireland), said:

“As [companies] today continue to face significant risks and costs when it comes to email, the ability to securely manage and protect digital information has become more critical than ever before. Just as customers have been turning to IronMountain for the storage and protection of their physical records, Iron Mountain Digital’s Storage-as-a-Service (SaaS) model offers secure, cost-effective storage and access to digital information, including email.”

Richard has a good point. Though his peculiar use of the phrase “Storage-as-a-Service” (SaaS) conflicts with the term “Software-as-a-Service” (also SaaS). Perhaps the storage industry needs to develop a new phrase to avoid the confusion down the line. My suggestion is Data-storage-as-a-Service (DaaS) to avoid the confusion.

Richard Ellis of IronMountain goes on to say:

“The Total Email Management Suite is a critical component of our digital archiving strategy – providing the rich functionality needed to protect and manage emails, enterprise-class security and necessary functionality in case of litigation, not to mention the peace of mind of a secure IronMountain hosted solution.”

“Iron Mountain” says that the amount of email that the average internet user receives (per capita) is growing annually, as well as the sheer volume of electronic mail in general. For the constant and evolving resource, management, and regulatory threats that companies deal with, ‘Iron Mountain’ offers the “Total Email Management Suite”.

Mark Reeves, Senior Vice President of MimeCast EMEA (Europe, Middle East, and Asia), said:

“IronMountainDigital customers can now benefit from the combination of Iron Mountain’s expertise on legal discovery coupled with a robust email archiving and management solution, delivered securely via a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model.”

Mimecast and Iron Mountain Digital had formed a “technology alliance” in April 2009. This new digital archiving solution seems to be the brainchild of these two companies working together.