Making e-Discovery Easier with ATMS by Jennifer Burl

In the recently released 10th Annual Litigation Trends Survey commissioned by Norton Rose Fullbright, senior corporate council members from several companies (401 participants in total) were asked their opinions regarding litigation trends and other related topics. Electronic discovery (often abbreviated e-Discovery) was one of the prime topics.

e-Discovery is the electronic aspect of identifying, collecting and producing electronically-stored information (ESI) in response to a request for its production during an investigation or a lawsuit. Types of ESI may include documents, emails, voicemail, social media, internet history, presentations, etc.

The process of e-Discovery is often a difficult one for enterprises, due to the sheer amount of electronic data produced and stored. Unlike hardcopy records storage, electronic data storage is more dynamic and often contains metadata such as file properties, author information and time-date stamps. Preserving this original content and metadata is required to successfully present it as evidence later in the litigation. Any information that is not submitted in full and on time will be subject to large fees and penalties.

The Fullbright study indicates that 41 percent of respondents have had to preserve or collect data from employee mobile devises due to investigations or litigation. That's an 11 percent increase from just 30 percent in 2011. In terms of retaining an outside council for regulatory assistance, 74 percent of larger companies admitted to having done so. Healthcare and financial companies are two major targets.

Of course, it's true that every company has unique data restoration requirements, but keeping around old technology just for the purpose of e-Discovery may not be the most efficient strategy. Restoring data can take up a significant amount of time when resources are tight, technology is dated and data is growing out of control.

So, what should you do if you're worried about finding information from legacy files for e-Discovery? Iron Mountain Archival Tape Management solution (ATMS) can help. When you move to a new technology or upgrade to a new tape format, we can keep your legacy tapes in our secure vaults, and you can decommission your hardware-meaning you can rely on us to restore your data when you need it. You look at your data on your tape catalog, tell us what you need, and we will retrieve and deliver your information quickly. You initiate the process of e-Discovery, determine the data you're looking for, and we'll find it and restore it for you; it's as simple as that.

You need a partner to help you access your outdated information so that you can move on to newer and shinier technologies. Iron Mountain ATMS catalog manager keeps all of your tapes' metadata in a catalog for quick recovery, and our Restoration Assurance program guarantees we'll find even the oldest, most hidden data-fast. You can move on to a new technology without worrying about managing retention to meet privacy and audit requirements.

In short, e-Discovery becomes a much easier process when you invest in company that has your back when it comes time for quick, efficient data restoration. For more information about what Iron Mountain can do for you, contact our sales team, today.

LINK:	http://blogs.ironmountain.com/2014/service-lines/data-backup-and-recov...
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