Managing Email Backup, Recovery, And Migration In Exchange Environments

Small and medium sized businesses (SMBs) have unique challenges when it comes to backing up, restoring, searching or migrating their Exchange database (EDB) files. These challenges are often pricey and protracted – issues that can bring productivity to a screeching halt.

Not only is it important to backup the entire server, but it is also important to have a way to restore mailboxes and individual email messages and attachments quickly and easily. This has been a complex problem because current Exchange backup solutions don't address all requirements from complete restore of an Exchange database down to the granular recovery of an individual email message or email attachment.

Another issue for SMBs is complying with regulatory or legal demands regarding the production of email records. Searching email databases for individual messages based on specific criteria can be an incredibly time-consuming task that most small businesses can ill afford. Restoring individual databases, then painstakingly searching for keywords, messages to certain domains or recipients, messages sent on specified dates or with specified subjects can take days – or even weeks – to complete.

Finally, upgrading to a new Exchange server can frustrate IT staff with its complexity and potential for disaster. The migration process can place a heavy load on SMBs with limited IT resources.

This white paper outlines each of these issues, why they are important for SMBs to address and how to resolve them while maximizing business continuity and minimizing IT resources necessary to accomplish the demands of maintaining Exchange servers.