IT Briefcase Exclusive Interview: Securing the eDiscovery Frontier with Trevor Daughney, Symantec Enterprise Vault

In the below interview, Trevor Daughney from the  Information Intelligence Group at Symantec discusses ways in which organizations today can optimally manage their company information early in the eDiscovery process to save costs and increase ROI.

• Q. In your opinion, how has the evolution of Big Data and Cloud Computing changed the way data should be stored, managed, and protected within the enterprise today?

A. The proliferation of data has definitely changed the way data needs to be stored, managed and secured. Organizations are now looking for solutions that help them take not only inventory, but control of their data, and providing them with visibility that can help their organization while generating analytics which can be used for better decision making. This is where solutions like Enterprise Vault and Enterprise Vault.cloud can help. Symantec archiving solutions allow organizations to collect their information in a central repository so they can quickly and accurately search this growing body of data in times of litigation and subsequent eDiscovery.

• Q. Taking into consideration the geo-spatial nature of business today and the proliferation of BYOD in the workplace, what steps do you suggest organizations take to keep their offsite data safe and secure?

A. BYOD and the consumerization of IT have changed the way we as enterprises communicate and do business. However, it is not only data security that organizations have to worry about. There are additional risks due to chain of custody requirements by the courts as well as regulatory requirements to retain and produce this information. In the United States, the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure state that all electronic communication is subject to discovery in times of litigation. Organizations should work with IT and HR to come up with policies and procedures for employees bringing devices into the workplace, so the employee is prepared to be able to produce files on their phone if the information it contains is subject to discovery.

• Q. Can you please tell us a little about the eDiscovery solutions that Symantec Enterprise Vault is offering today?

A. Symantec Enterprise Vault is hands down one of Symantec’s most popular solutions. Enterprise Vault allows users to store, manage, and discover unstructured information across the organization. As the industry’s most widely-deployed enterprise archiving software, Enterprise Vault helps customers proactively collect information, allowing them to reduce the time required to respond to eDiscovery requests.

Enterprise Vault also allows organizations to start culling information early in the eDiscovery process to reduce storage and review costs. Enterprise Vault allows organizations to deduplicate information across data sources – they can store only one copy of a PowerPoint file, whether it is on a file server, in SharePoint, or an email attachment ¬¬– and they can set up retention policies to be able to delete confidently.

In addition, only Enterprise Vault is integrated with Symantec’s Clearwell eDiscovery Platform. This allows attorneys and other investigators to quickly access a central repository as well as free them from being dependent on IT to do so. Investigators working in the eDiscovery Platform can search and collect information directly from Enterprise Vault as well as preserve information in the archive in place for legal hold.  Symantec once again was recently named a leader in the Gartner eDiscovery Magic Quadrant.
Enterprise Vault’s latest features include:

Built-in Data Classification Services

– Organizations can automatically classify Exchange email as it enters the archive to add context and relevance about their information and tag information for eDiscovery.

– Organizations can identify and flag email with private and sensitive information, such as social security numbers, bank accounts and phone numbers, to improve how they retain and delete information.

Social Media and Website Archiving

– Extend compliance and retention policies to sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn

– Preserve social media communications for eDiscovery requests

Archive to the Cloud

– Leverage the Cloud Storage Connector to use cloud storage as a cheaper storage tier for archiving

Archive Microsoft SharePoint Content

– Extend governance to SharePoint. Archive SharePoint document libraries for storage optimization and compliance.

– Archive SharePoint document libraries, wiki’s custom SharePoint lists, social content and more.

• Q. What industries benefit most from these eDiscovery solutions?

A. In reality, all industries benefit from eDiscovery solutions. Organizations, from the smallest business to an enterprise, could be subjected to litigation at some point, and eDiscovery solutions can help those organizations take the time and headache out of manual discovery searches. Organizations that are serial litigants and/or are in heavily regulated industries benefit most from improving how they govern information and by bringing eDiscovery in-house.

• Q. How does Symantec’s archiving technology work to help organizations safely and effectively move sensitive company information over to the Cloud?

A. Symantec offers Enterprise Vault.cloud, which is a cloud-based archiving service that helps organizations store, manage, and discover business-critical information. Enterprise Vault.cloud securely captures information in a centralized and tamper-proof online repository, with seamless end user access and rapid search functionality. Plus, the built-in collaborative eDiscovery workflow provides legal teams with roles-based access, expediting the discovery process. With no mandatory hardware or software required, the service is quick and easy to deploy and provides unlimited storage.

Alternatively, companies looking to deploy archiving software on-premise can use Enterprise Vault with its Cloud Storage Connector to use cloud storage as a cheaper storage tier for archiving.

• Q. What do you see as the future of data storage and Cloud Computing, and how will Symantec continue to work to keep organizations safe and secure within this evolution?

A. As cloud computing increases in popularity, Symantec will continue to deliver solutions to its customers and partners that provide them choice and flexibility in how they manage their information, whether on-premise or in the cloud.

Trevor Daughney is the Director of Product Marketing for the Information Intelligence Group at Symantec. Trevor joined Symantec in 2008 where he has marketed archiving and eDiscovery products, backup appliances and professional services. Prior to joining Symantec, he led sales and marketing for technology consulting organizations in the US and Asia. Trevor is a graduate of Queen’s University, Canada and holds an MBA from U.C. Berkeley.