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storage is cheap, NOW. in 2010, was it as cheap? no. and, although storage is cheap, my company still fights tooth and nail about spending more on it. because the reality is, when you're looking to cut spending, IT is always one of the first budgets to get cut. I send 25MB emails almost daily (which, if you thought about backing that up, you literally have 15 25MB emails to back up every day (14 recipients, plus my sent email...not counting anyone it's forwarded to). I hit my 400MB limit constantly, and have to delete old emails. We have email archiving for people in certain jobs, that's it. everyone else...it's on you. so i use my network folder.
25MB per person, 90K employees, 365 days = 821TB
This is not that expensive if you want to just throw money at it and backup everything. The bigger issue than the money is access. Certainly not ideal but it's better than NO backup.
Ideally Brady you have system that is going to process the email and it appears that is the service Sonasoft was providing but what they were backing up is unclear. It also appears that service provided easy access unlike tape. You strip attachments and store them once, strip redundant emails etc. Gzip them....
They are required by law to archive these emails and I'm sure you are aware that you never trust the user.
You wouldn't becsue again you never trust the user. If they delete the emails from their HDD or they become corrupted what are you going to back up? I'm not familiar with exchange but as I understand it by default when the user deletes an email it's a soft delete and goes into a similar state like a file in the trash can. What you would do is back these up before they are purged from the server.
Of course there is numerous other ways to do this, if you are making full backups you only purge them after a full backup and don't recycle the tape.
which law is it that you reference that requires companies to archive ALL emails?
What you are describing it appears to me you have the possibility of data being overwritten in which case you'll never recover it, that's not what the IRS is claiming. They are claiming bad sectors which is corruption of the data, without severe physical damage to the platter you're not going to lose data like that. Had hey said they lost some of the data that is believable.
I'd have to ask the IT guy that worked on it. I'm not saying I disagree with you, I'm just saying, loss of data happens and it's not always recoverable. It depends on a variety of factors that I'm not completely sure we've even been told. I'm assuming they use Exchange. What servers are they using to manage email, and do they retain copies of emails on the servers? Or do they purge them once the end user downloads the emails? I know people love to say things about technology because of what we're all used to with gmail and facebook and google, but the reality is, most government agencies are operating a decade behind or more in the world of IT.
Add to that, most companies I've seen (admittedly, mid-market companies) that aren't specifically required to retain emails (mainly financial services companies) don't. I always thought it was ridiculous, but that didn't make it less common. And it didn't stop CIOs from looking at our audit team like we had 3 heads when we'd recommend better backup and retention procedures.
I'd be willing to bet that the IRS has better PAPER RETENTION procedures than they do data retention. Just a wild guess. But I'd bet some cash on that.
This is not that expensive if you want to just throw money at it and backup everything. The bigger issue than the money is access. Certainly not ideal but it's better than NO backup.
Ideally Brady you have system that is going to process the email and it appears that is the service Sonasoft was providing but what they were backing up is unclear. It also appears that service provided easy access unlike tape. You strip attachments and store them once, strip redundant emails etc. Gzip them....
I don't think its unclear what Sonasoft was backing up. The IRS Commissioner testified and Sonasoft said on their website that they were providing service only to the IRS Chief Counsel's office.....i.e. the lawyers.
Nothing to do with the division where Lerner worked.
I was referring to the IRS, they dont have a choice.
They do have a choice; otherwise, why does NARA have a CAPSTONE alternative whereby an agency can archive only top execs or whomever they deem most likely to be issuing things that constitute federal records via email.
The IRS Commissioner testified to this and its described on NARA's website.
and do they retain copies of emails on the servers? Or do they purge them once the end user downloads the emails?
Obviously they purge them or we wouldn't be having this discussion. The only emails on backup would be ones moved to the local drive in the 6 month window.
Quote:
I'd be willing to bet that the IRS has better PAPER RETENTION procedures than they do data retention. Just a wild guess. But I'd bet some cash on that.
Tjhey were supposed to make paper copies on any email deemed IRS business but there is no copies of these emails. That's besides the fact it's lunacy to have a policy in place making them print and store paper copies. It's inefficient and expensive.
Means we are either wasting money or the IT guys at IRS need replaced if all 90000 computers died that 20000 per employee for iT. They have 20000 for each computer and can not keep back ups
Well, you're drastically oversimplifying it. $20,000 "for each computer" only displays a complete lack of understanding of how network architecture works.
How much are they spending on servers? How much is their electric bill for their data centers? What is the cost of their service contracts for backup generators for their data centers? For their fire suppression system that has to be tested periodically and serviced annually? Do they perform disaster recovery/business continuity exercises, and how much do they cost? What is their software licensing cost? What software do they use? How many DBAs do they employ? What's their telecommunications budget? How much do they spend on faxes (my guess, a lot). Are they relatively paperless? How many printers do they have? Do they lease, or purchase? Do you know how much a toner cartridge for an office printer costs? My company switched everyone's print settings to default to double sided - we had around 100,000 employees at the time (2010) and it saved us $400,000/month.
See - numbers don't mean a whole lot when you simply say "$1.8B or $20,000 per computer'.
They do have a choice; otherwise, why does NARA have a CAPSTONE alternative whereby an agency can archive only top execs or whomever they deem most likely to be issuing things that constitute federal records via email.
The IRS has in their own words 4 primary divisions, Lerner headed one of them. I think it's safe to say she falls into that category.
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