April 2009 – E-discovery is an evolving field that goes far beyond mere technology. It gives rise to multiple legal, constitutional, political, security, and personal privacy issues, many of which have yet to be resolved. Electronic discovery (also called e-discovery or ediscovery) refers to any process in which electronic data is sought, located, secured, and searched with the intent of using it as evidence in a civil or criminal legal case. E-discovery can be carried out offline on a particular computer or it can be done in a network. Court-ordered or government sanctioned hacking for the purpose of obtaining critical evidence is also a type of e-discovery.

The nature of digital data makes it extremely well-suited to investigation, as it can be electronically searched with ease, whereas paper documents must be scrutinized manually. The growth in volume of electronically stored information (think at least 1GB of email per employee per year) and changes to rules that guide the discovery process (pdf), have set new expectations for how companies should treat electronic information during the course of a lawsuit. As a result, many organizations find themselves scrambling to locate and preserve email in response to impending litigation, often spending excessively in the course of doing so. Given the complexity involved, it can cost $1,800 to shepherd a gigabyte of email through the discovery process.

There are things you can do, however, to transform e-discovery from a fire drill into a predictable business process. A good start is to be proactive about email archiving to ensure that a comprehensive and centralized record of all email is maintained and accessible to administrators. Setting policies regarding the retention of email is also a good idea. It’s also useful to understand how email archiving fits into the rest of the e-discovery process; a good framework for approaching this can be found in the Electronic Discovery Reference Model (www.edrm.net). See how CUC can help you with your e-Discovery requirements here.

March 2009 - The blending of two disparate storage platforms into a single efficient system can be called a hybrid storage solution. PowerFile is on the forefront of storage evolution. Santa Clara-based PowerFile offers unique hybrid archival data storage solutions that classify, migrate, store, and protect corporate information in ways unachievable by traditional technologies. They have helped some of the greatest companies in the world experience the benefits of their hybrid Blu-ray archival storage technology. CUC has begun selling the new OmniLib/A3-series content-aware hybrid storage appliance solution that bridges the gap between modern data and legacy infrastructures. Incorporating PowerFile patented technology, the OmniLib/A3 was engineered to promote security and high availability of data within dedicated or mixed UNIX and Windows® environments. By integrating both Common Internet File System (CIFS) and Network File System (NFS) protocols, OmniLib/A3 allows you to focus on applications and not the back-end storage that supports them. Employing currently available 50GB blu-ray media, the OmniLib/A3 provides 140TB of uncompressed raw archival on-line storage capacity. For more information, go here.

January 2009 – Alliance Storage Technologies announced that it has completed the acquisition of all Plasmon assets, a trusted source of data archiving systems for over 20 years. The asset acquisition includes the full line of Plasmon libraries, drives,media, parts, and related inventory. With this acquisition, Alliance Storage Technologies has positioned itself as a leader in the long term data storage market, and will continue to maintain and develop its technologies in the optical solutions market. Alliance Storage Technologies will continue the use of the Plasmon Brand identity and is committed to globally addressing the current and future needs of all Plasmon’s worldwide customers and partners, as well as ensuring continued customer satisfaction and confidence. Alliance Storage Technologies is committed to the Plasmon line of products; with sales of the UDO technology, on?site maintenance services, technical support, depot repair, media and parts.

The asset acquisition includes all patents, copyrights, trademarks, technologies, and related intellectual properties for library, media, and drive technologies, as well as the manufacturing facilities, repair processes, and know how. Alliance Storage Technologies has also retained key personnel and resources from Plasmon in order to continue the high level of support and manufacturing capabilities on which customers have relied upon. Alliance has expanded its locations to include the previous Plasmon facility, and is now conducting business from this address as well as the original Alliance location. Both operations are located in Colorado Springs, CO.