Zovy Archive Alternatives & Migration Software [MVP Guide]

Whether you’re currently relying on the Zovy Archive as an on-premises solution or in a hosted environment, you’re likely looking to migrate your archive to a more modern cloud archive. With more of the workforce working remotely and organizations looking to reduce costs, the cloud has become an essential part of modern business across every industry. With ‘born in the cloud’ companies disrupting existing industries, cloud-based solutions are imperative for organizations to remain competitive and agile in rapidly changing markets.

When it comes to data security and information management, the cloud also offers businesses many more options, especially when it comes to their data security. From best-in-class protection for their information to cutting edge capabilities like AI (Artificial Intelligence) and ML (Machine Learning), modern cloud platforms open up a world of new opportunities for organizations to secure and do more with their data.

However, just because a vendor uses the word ‘cloud’ doesn’t mean you’ll experience its true benefit. The term has become synonymous with any kind of remote tool or service that operates online and doesn’t require physical infrastructure for storage. You likely use productivity tools from Google or Microsoft that exist in the cloud, some or all of your business systems will likely be ‘cloud-based’, and even the Zovy Archive’s hosted platform operates in a third-party cloud of sorts. But to harness the true power of the cloud, it’s important to understand the pros and cons of different cloud archiving options. Moving your legacy on-premises or hosted archives to a modern, hyperscale public cloud environment provides you with the flexibility, power, and tools required to secure your data, reduce your TCO costs and compete in an increasingly connected, digital business world. Such a shift in your infrastructure will bring about rapid benefits for your business and help to accelerate your company’s digital transformation strategy.

Cloud Migration: A Tale of Two Choices

While there are many vendors and services to choose from, cloud archiving falls into two primary camps. Those offered via SaaS (Software as a Service) and those based in the public cloud. And the two differ wildly when it comes to features and functionality.

Many organizations have already looked into information archiving for regulatory compliance, information governance, and litigation preparedness and have considered turn-key SaaS archiving solutions such as Global Relay, Mimecast, or Smarsh. On the surface, they check all the basic boxes for functionality and offer that “out of the box” ease many are looking for. However, SaaS archiving solutions have many drawbacks, including the fact that SaaS solutions rob you of full control over your company’s archived data. Be sure you understand the costs and timelines to migrate your archived data if dissatisfied. Many SaaS providers will structure their cloud archive and convert your data to a proprietary format to make it difficult and costly to move your data later – a practice is known as data ransoming.

On the other side, there’s the option to migrate to your own public cloud tenant where none of these compromises exist. You simply choose the archiving or information management solution that suits your business, set the exact levels of security, and provide and manage your own encryption keys based on your company’s unique needs and risk posture.

Let’s take a look at the two options in more detail…

In a recent survey of global IT executives, including VPs, Directors, and members of the C-suite at major corporations, only 19% of those surveyed believed 75% or more of their SaaS vendors met all their security requirements. 70% stated they had been forced to make at least one security exception for a SaaS vendor. While many of these organizations are likely using popular SaaS products like Microsoft Office 365 and Salesforce, where the size and standing of the vendor might make the business more amenable to accepting a perceived lower risk, the clear takeaway is that many SaaS solutions don’t provide the security standards and flexibility modern organizations require.

On the topic of encryption keys, an astounding 95% of respondents believed it was important to control their own encryption keys, and 81% were uncomfortable with their SaaS vendors controlling them. However, 74% of those surveyed said they did not control the encryption keys for the majority of their SaaS solutions. This is a worrying statistic and one that many organizations will have to take steps to reverse as regulations continue to tighten and the threat of cybercrime grows. To that end, 92% of executives said they would require more security customization in the future, with 63% of them planning to retire current SaaS applications that don’t provide them control over encryption key creation and management.

These statistics paint a clear picture of the security landscape and the risk that the one-size-fits-all approach of SaaS vendors introduces. As the trend for security customization continues and scrutiny over data access and handling increases, SaaS solutions will become increasingly less palatable for organizations’ risk mitigation efforts. Instead, more secure and customizable solutions will be a major focus.

Sub-Standard Security: SaaS Vendors Don’t Let You Control…

1. Encryption keys management or storage
2. Custom compliance reporting
3. Cloud-native directories
4. Granular access controls
5. Identity management
6. Threat detection

Moving to the hyperscale cloud will involve some change, especially when it comes to security best practices. There will be different security elements to consider in comparison to an on-premises archive or one in a legacy SaaS cloud. What you gain, however, is complete flexibility. In the hyperscale cloud you can create your security environment to match the specific needs of your business. You can follow the same processes and comply with the same regulations as you always did with the added benefit that your data will be even more secure. Major cloud providers like Microsoft and Amazon can’t afford to let their security standards slip. Breaches would be bad for their business, and they’re already prime targets for some of the most powerful hackers in the world. For this reason, they invest millions of dollars and countless resources into protecting their platforms. So much so that they have become the authorities on cloud cybersecurity, interacting with governments and others to help eliminate threats and spot emerging dangers. Wouldn’t it be great to be protected by next-generation, always evolving security capabilities provided by the best cloud providers in the business? Well, that’s what you get in the hyperscale cloud. SaaS vendors can’t begin to match this level of investment and experience in data security.

For most organizations, data repositories are getting bigger, more costly, and becoming more complex and wide-ranging by the day. On top of this, the regulatory and legal climate is growing increasingly more stringent, with new, stricter regulatory retention requirements added every year.

The chances are your organization must comply with the financial services industry’s very prescriptive SEC 17, FINRA, and MiFID II requirements, or have a legal need to ensure ongoing litigation hold requirement of specific custodian data or want to conduct targeted internal investigations.

The need to capture, store, protect, index/make searchable, audit, and export (with full metadata intact) has radically expanded beyond everyday email. Your compliance journals must now include content from collaboration platforms like Bloomberg Chat, Slack, Salesforce activity, social media platforms, Microsoft Teams, and many other sources.

Migrating a legacy journal in a legally defensible manner is not easy and should only be done by those with a long history of success. Some migration vendors will tell you that “exploding” or “splitting” journals so that they can be inserted into Office 365 is the best process. However, Microsoft frowns on this practice and instead suggests that the intact legacy journals be migrated into another third-party cloud archive. Some companies have chosen to migrate their journals into a SaaS cloud infrastructure, but with the issues already highlighted with SaaS clouds, the better choice is to move them into your own, company-controlled cloud tenancy.