Migrated from eDJGroupInc.com. Author: Barry Murphy. Published: 2010-08-12 07:46:22Format, images and links may no longer function correctly. When eDiscovery first hit the scene, many of us in the analyst community predicted that enterprise content management (ECM) vendors would ultimately be the big solution providers that win out. It seemed like records management would be the right way to proactively manage information for eDiscovery. But, a funny thing happened on the way to forum – ECM hasn’t yet won out. In fact, no one category of solution has yet to emerge as the big eDiscovery winner. But, a recent Greg Buckles comment on my article about eDiscovery technologies being applied to other use-cases really got me thinking about how our market is evolving.
Greg’s comment read, “The decision to just rely on the [backup] tapes seems like it is just putting off the inevitable and raising the final price. Organizations keep hoping that ‘inaccessible’ designations will hold up in court, but I don’t see that happening without a serious investment in an archive or other live repository that allows you to say that there is nothing unique on the tapes.” He’s referring to the fact that some companies are looking to information off backup tapes and into searchable repositories in an effort to get rid of the tapes. Traditionally, eDiscovery has relied on collecting information from a variety of sources (hence why it’s been such a nightmare). Solutions like Digital Reef, Kazeon, Recommind, and StoredIQ arose to give organizations a more centralized interface for collection. In addition, many organizations turned to archiving in order to centralize the management of tricky content types like email and file system content.
Where I see a lot of interest now is in archiving all the high-volume, user-generated content, even that from ECM systems (SharePoint is a good example). While ECM systems are closely connected to content-centric processes (think insurance claims management), the information deemed necessary could be archived (alongside email and other content) – and the archive could become the eDiscovery system of record. A lot of the legal types I run this past like it – because it seems both reasonable and like a good faith effort.
The ECM vendors all have archive offerings. Match those up with good search capabilities and perhaps some review and ECA acquisitions down the road and perhaps the archive will become the path via which EMC vendors stake the claim to the eDiscovery market. It’s just a thought for now, but I’m interested in knowing what you think…