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Email Archiving Grows in Popularity, But Apps Are Still Limited: Page 3 of 4

Companies expect their archives to grow to hundreds of terabytes because everybody keeps sending more emails and companies are keeping them longer for both business and legal reasons. Yet, systems need to be able to move files around based on a variety of factors. The chances that a stored email will be looked at decreases greatly as time passes, so messages more than 90 days old can be archived on slower and cheaper storage. Year-old email can be moved to an even slower and less expensive form of storage, like tape.

Delivering better integration is another item near the top of vendors' to-do lists. Corporations often find themselves with a hodgepodge of archiving options -- one for email, one for files, one for images, etc. Rather than autonomous systems, businesses would like to deploy one system that works with all of their data.

Another downside is these products can be quite expensive. Pricing typically starts near $50,000 and can quickly move past the $100,000 mark.

Like other software market segments, there also has been growing interest in using services to help lower costs. "Small and medium businesses are becoming more interested in email archiving services," says Osterman, whose firm expects these services to account for about two thirds of total market revenue in 2011 compared to about one third in 2008.

The email archiving market has moved from an interesting idea to accepted technology in short order. Even though deployment is growing, there are many new companies entering the market with products or additions to existing products, so the market is expected to see significant changes in product design and capabilities in the coming years.