Mimecast beefs up cloud-based email management

Mimecast has added new functionality to its Unified Email Management platform

Mimecast has updated its email management product with new functionality that it says can rival on-premise systems such as those provided by Microsoft and IBM.

The latest Unified Email Management platform contains new archiving, mailbox management and data protection features, according to the company.

Mimecast claims that the next-generation offering will allow customers to address increasing industry regulations, and control inboxes while preventing data leaks.

"This release is to compete with on-site email vendors," said Mimecast chief technology officer Neil Murray. "It is the next step from the move we made 18 months ago when we adjusted from an email archive company to store all documents, files and videos."

The added capabilities include Litigation Hold, Ediscovery Case Management and Metadata Removal.

Litigation Hold prevents the deletion of emails that relate to any current or anticipated legal action, while E-discovery Case Management allows administrators with appropriate permissions to identify all data potentially relevant to an inquiry, and associate all sub-sets of data with that case.

If the data is in emails and desktop files, or other custodians, federated searches can be applied across the entire archive, said the firm.

"The result is multiple searches relating to a particular case collated centrally, giving immediate and secure access to reviewers who can be assigned viewing rights appropriate to their role," said the company.

Metadata Removal, meanwhile, helps to prevent information leaks by stripping background data, such as tracked changes or previously inserted comments, out of attachments before they are allowed outside the firewall.

The update to the firm's flagship product could be useful to European companies facing increasing e-discovery requirements. E-discovery is the process of disclosing electronically stored information in order to comply with specific laws and regulations.

The Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008 allows fines to be imposed on companies that fail to implement appropriate systems for records management, and proposals are currently moving through the European Union for the notification of security breaches.

"The driving force behind all these changes has come from the sales team that encountered businesses resisting the change from on-premise email systems to cloud," Murray said.

Mimecast plans to further compete with on-premise suppliers in the next six to 12 months by introducing unified file archiving, allowing companies to store emails, desktop files and document management files such as SharePoint in an integrated system.