Mimosa NearPoint for File Systems
Automated Management of File System Content
The widespread use of unstructured electronic files (such as Microsoft® Office,
Adobe® PDF, and others) is creating a critical management challenge for organizations. System administrators
responsible for protecting and managing unstructured information are facing rapid storage growth and shrinking
back-up windows that reduce overall data protection and increase storage costs.
Meanwhile, one of the most common places for end-users to store content is on
network file systems. There is a perception of safety – content is stored on a company server, insulated from a
desktop hard drive crash – and of central management because the content is not on a personal desktop. But, file
systems are not managed content repositories with library services, indexes, and version control. On the contrary,
file system content is virtually unmanaged and presents huge challenges to organizations:
- Storage costs soar out of control as high-end production systems grow
unfettered with old data and as various users store multiple copies of the same content
- Files corresponding to a specific user role or department are not retained and
can be deleted by end-users
- eDiscovery costs are high due to
non-indexed content, collection efforts operating in silos, and redundant content processing and
review
- Increased risks due to potential sensitive information (e.g. intellectual
property, salary data, and patient health data) unknowingly residing on file systems and leaving the
company
The chart above, based on an independent survey by the Enterprise Strategy Group
(ESG), shows the record types organization have been asked to produce in a legal proceeding or regulatory
inquiry
A Next-Generation Approach to File Systems
Archiving
With NearPoint for File System Archiving (FSA), administrators can easily set
policy to scan file shares and capture files based on archiving policies. Captured files are indexed and archived
and then NearPoint FSA de-duplicates across multiple file shares, as well as across messages and attachments, for
global single-instancing across content sources. Thus, NearPoint FSA enables retention/disposition policies of
targeted files, and enables search and eDiscovery of files in the corporate environment.
Optionally, files on file shares can be extended by replacing the files with small
stub files, so end-users still continue to seamlessly access the files as normal. Extension policies on files are
based on such attributes as type, size, and age. NearPoint utilizes advanced stubbing technology to optimize the
use of network resources and storage during stub file operation, resulting in significant reduction in expensive
production storage.
NearPoint File System Archiving: Features and
Benefits
|
Features
|
Benefits
|
|
Archive and delete files that match policy
|
- Lower costs - move files from production to the
archive
- Consistent end-user experience using seamless
stubs
|
|
Unified back-end for all user-generated content
|
- Single application for retention/disposition
policies
- Consolidated view for eDiscovery
|
|
Global, single-instancing across all content
|
- Enables storage efficiency
- Avoids re-indexing duplicates
- Optimizes Index Object Repository volume
utilization
|
|
Flexible, expressive capture policies
|
- Allows for rules-based capture and archiving based on
attributes
- Quickly determine content to be archived, and for how
long
|
|
Seamless access with end-user search and browse or optional
stubs
|
- End-users continue accessing information as usual while
reducing stored content on expensive disk
|
|
Service Oriented Architecture (SOA)
|
- API-based platform for optional products and 3rd party
solutions
- Creates suitability for enterprise deployments with security
tiers
|
|
Zero Agent Architecture
|
- Enable crawling and file extension with zero agents on file
servers
- No agents on desktops for extended file access by
end-users
|
|
Advanced versioning
|
- Achieves storage savings by using block-level de-duplication
to store specific changes of different file versions
|
|
Fast, simple recovery
|
- Administrator driven file restore
- Save time and cost by reducing recovery through back-up tape
restoration
|
|
eDiscovery collection from desktops/laptops
|
- Reduce eDiscovery costs by collecting files from
network-attached desktop/laptops, without requiring forensic disk imaging
|
|
Advanced reporting capabilities
|
- Alerts administrators to any crawl exceptions
|
|
Advanced, seamless file extension technology
|
- Optimizes use of network and storage during stub file
operations
|
|
Content-based file type detection
|
- Allows archiving of file types (even masked)
|
|
Advanced metadata management
|
- Metadata resides on file system instead of database,
optimizing the database
- Enables highly scalable search
|
|
NearPoint Scale-out Grid Architecture
|
- Scalability to tens of thousands of file systems
- Leverage cost-effective servers and storage
- Single point of management
- Automatic load balancing
- Resilient to failures
|
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