IT executives still resist e-mail archiving.

• Position: E-MAIL

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Despite the risks to their businesses, some IT professionals are still not taking e-mail archiving requirements seriously, according to a recent survey by Osterman Research.

The September 2008 survey (commissioned by Proofpoint Inc., a unified e-mail security, archiving, and data loss prevention solution provider) of 130 IT managers and executives who manage an average of 17,000 employees who use e-mail, revealed that:

* Nearly 60% of respondents do not have an e-mail archiving solution in place, and 15% said they have no plans to deploy one.

* More than one in three (39%) companies surveyed had been ordered by a court or regulatory body to produce employee e-mail in the past year alone.

Previous Osterman research (April 2008) found that nearly two-thirds of organizations have been ordered to produce employee e-mail or instant messages at some point, while a slightly higher percentage have referred back to e-mail archives or backups to support their innocence in a legal case.

"It is shocking to see such a high percentage of enterprises that have not yet deployed an archiving solution and even more troubling to see that some have no plans for deployment. Recent legal cases, including the one involving Larry Ellison and Oracle, should be reason enough to make sure a solution is in place to meet e-discovery demands," said Sandra Vaughan, Proofpoint senior vice president of marketing and products, in a press release. "Unfortunately, it will take more cases and lost time and money before some organizations...