Can you remember back to 1999? The millennium was approaching and the IT world was surrounded with Y2K fears and misconceptions. Preparations were extensive; conceiving doom and gloom scenarios seemed to be a national pastime. Millions of hours and billions of dollars were spent to ensure the year 2000 came without any major hitches.

We are at the end of another year. And although preparing to welcome 2012 raises none of the panic flags that 2000 did, there are a lot of vigilant steps that IT administrators can take to prepare, especially when it comes to managing data. The volume of digital information being generated with organizations these days is unprecedented and there are no indications this growth is about to abate. Moreover, there are a number of challenges IT departments face in managing all of this data, some obvious, some maybe not so obvious.

As a leading provider of information management solutions, Sherpa Software has helped a number of organizations meet these challenges. And in doing so, we also have encountered an array of common practices employed by IT departments and typical pitfalls they encounter. Highlighted below are a few best practices, compiled from our experiences, to hopefully help you get 2012 started on the right foot.

Revisit Your Backups
This is one tip that likely falls into the “obvious” category but it is remarkable how many backup related issues we run into. The problems with backups are not just that many organizations do not have a process to periodically test and validate their backups – needless to say, you should. But the nature of data being collected today and their needs to the organization is changing and they have, in many cases, a direct impact on the organization’s backup requirements.  This is a good time to review the current backup routines, ensure that not just the right information is backed up but also stored for the necessary period of time. For instance, you may have deployed a new archiving solution that stores data in its own separate repository. This is data that should potentially be backed up and preserved; but also backing up the archives will likely impact the backup needs of the original source data.  These scenarios are common and warrant an organizational review of all corporate data as it relates to backup procedures.

Corporate Retention Policies
Formulating retention policies and enforcing them, it turns out, is the ugly step-child of the IT department. To accommodate the growing data demands, it certainly is more convenient to simply buy additional storage, especially given the rapidly declining costs of storage devices. But given the rate of this growth, just throwing more storage at it is not a prudent strategy. And regulations are something else to consider here. Public companies fall under the purview of federally stipulated regulations which, depending on the industry in question, mandate strict guidelines for the storage, transfer and retrieval of electronic information. There are potential e-Discovery concerns here as well, the salient points of which we will discuss in the next section.

So whether you are in a regulated industry or simply have to deal with vast amounts of data, setting up clear, practical and enforceable retention policies is the first step to gaining control over this problem. Crafting retention policies for an organization is typically a team effort involving IT, representatives from a legal and/or a compliance department, upper management and other relevant parties. Although it is beyond the scope of this article to offer extensive guidance in devising retention policies, here are a few points to remember:

- Make sure the policy is well-defined and comprehensive.

- Take e-Discovery requirements into consideration.

- Goes without saying, but the retention policy has to be enforceable. Try and avoid manual processes and consider third-party solutions to automate enforcement.

- Document and periodically test to validate that there are no holes in the process.

- Periodically (maybe the end of every year) review the policies and make appropriate updates.

Preparing for E-Discovery
Regulated or not, publicly traded or not, the federal government has specific mandates for electronically stored information (ESI) for any organization that is party to a lawsuit. As many of you are aware from the media, the penalties for failure to comply with these regulations can be catastrophic for an organization. The instant a lawsuit is filed is not the best time to begin preparing for e-Discovery. If you are not prepared, familiarize yourself with concepts such as legal holds and data production. As discussed earlier, the ability to quickly and effectively retrieve electronic information necessary for a lawsuit should be one of the areas on which the corporate retention policy is based. In the unfortunate event of a lawsuit involving your organization, this preparation will have a significant and lasting impact on your ability to persevere through the trial.

Cloud Considerations
And finally a note on the cloud. With the buzz surrounding cloud-based solutions over the past couple of years, we hear from more of our customers contemplating moving one or more of their core in-house services to a hosted provider offering a similar or alternate service. The benefits are tangible and well-documented – lower upfront costs, reduced IT effort in maintaining and managing the service, reduction in the capital budget, convenience of anywhere access
and more.

However, the decision isn’t that simple and nor is there a universal answer. The reality is it that it mostly depends on the service, your organization’s requirements for that service, the tolerance level of its unavailability and broader support for any specific corporate requirements you may have. So if you are broaching the possibility of moving a current in-house service to a hosted provider – and now would be a good time to do that –here are few things to consider:

- The cost – monthly cost for the hosted service versus the life-time cost of managing the service in-house, including hardware and IT. Keep in mind limitations imposed by the hosted provider, such as storage, bandwidth, etc.

- How critical is the service to your day-to-day operation? Contingencies if the service is temporarily unavailable?

- How critical is the data? Implications of it falling into the wrong hands? Hosted providers and privacy and security assurances?

- Is the service currently customized, and if yes, is that level of customization available in the hosted version?

- What is the migration strategy? The cost to migrate?

- What is the opt-out strategy? Can you get back all your data? In what format? Any extra costs?

These are just a few of the thoughts collected from helping our customers overcome most of their information management hurdles. I hope you find these useful as you prepare to tackle the challenges you face in 2012. And from everyone at Sherpa Software, I would like to wish you and your organization a prosperous and successful 2012.

Organizations change email platforms for a variety of reasons. Sometimes it’s to take advantage of a specific feature in the new system, or it can be the result of a merger or acquisition where one entity’s email needs to be converted to create a consistent environment. At Sherpa Software, we offer content solutions for both the Lotus Notes and the Outlook/Exchange platforms. From time to time, we do see customers transition from one of these popular email systems to the other.

Sherpa doesn’t offer direct migration tools per se, although there are plenty of other vendors and consulting firms that do. We also don’t endorse one mail platform over another. Where we fit into the picture is by offering – regardless of your preferred email platform – email management and e-Discovery solutions designed to assist you with document retention and storage needs, as well as regulatory compliance and other legal requirements.

When we see customers migrate, it’s typically from the Notes environment to Exchange – although we’ve seen the reverse scenario as well. While planning the move to Exchange, email administrators often want to be assured that they won’t be giving up the mail management, archiving and e-Discovery capabilities that Sherpa provided in the Notes world. Fortunately, Sherpa offers solutions of equal reliability for both platforms.
Before we get into specific considerations about migrating, let’s take a moment and discuss cloud-based alternatives to Exchange, particularly Microsoft’s Office 365. If you’re transferring from Lotus Notes, it’s a safe bet you have a large number of users. Office 365 may not be appropriate for organizations with high-volume email. For Lotus Notes users making the switch, sticking with an on-premise solution is probably the way to go.
More importantly, if you’re already a Sherpa customer, you’re used to having absolute control of your email environment. If you’re in a highly regulated industry, or face stringent compliance restrictions or potential litigation, a cloud-based solution is probably not for you.

Once you’ve decided to migrate to Exchange, the next question is… to which version? At first glance, the obvious answer is to upgrade to the latest and greatest, Exchange 2010. But the answer may not be as simple as it seems. Exchange 2007 included an integrated migration tool, the Microsoft Transporter Suite, to facilitate converting mail messages and calendar items from Lotus Notes or POP/IMAP sources to the Exchange format. However, Microsoft has opted not to update Transporter with Exchange 2010, but rather has decided to allow third-party vendors to create migration tools. While third-party tools may be far more flexible than the fairly bare-bones Transporter Suite, they are also expensive, with pricing typically based on the number of users. If you’re planning on using third-party software to help with your migration, be sure to include researching these tools as part of your planning process, and include their costs within your budget for the migration.

As an alternative, you could use the Transporter Suite to migrate to Exchange 2007, at least as an interim step. This saves you the expense of purchasing a third-party migration tool, but it also means you’ll essentially be performing the migration process twice – assuming your ultimate goal is to be on Exchange 2010. Another downside is that you can’t simply upgrade an existing Exchange 2007 server to 2010 – you’ll need to install an Exchange 2010 server and then make the transfer. That doesn’t necessarily mean that you need to invest in new hardware. If you have a virtual environment, you can install a VM with Exchange 2010, and then eventually drop the 2007 server after the transition.

Whichever route you take, it’s a good idea to create a test environment that mimics your production environment as much as possible. Once you start transferring users in earnest, you’ll probably be taking a phased approach where you’re moving users to Exchange in batches. During this period, the Notes and Exchange environments will need to co-exist, with users on either platform able to send and receive mail both internally and over the Internet. You’ll also need to ensure calendaring is available and that users can see each other’s free/busy time. Finally, you’ll need to take into account the synchronization of any mobile devices that users need for messaging.

Another big consideration is whether you use Notes for custom applications outside of ordinary email. If that’s the case, it might make more sense to continue to maintain some semblance of your Notes environment in order to retain access to those applications. It’s difficult to predict if some other solution can substitute for your current Notes database applications. It may be possible to use Microsoft SharePoint or some other tool to recreate the functionality of some Notes applications (such as discussion databases, or QuickPlace or TeamRoom applications), but that might be a time-consuming and costly alternative. The fact that you may rely on Notes for more than just email may have some huge implications when deciding whether or not to migrate.

Switching email platforms is never a decision that should be made lightly. But while it doesn’t have to be a nightmare, it’s almost guaranteed to be a lengthy and expensive process. The good news is, regardless of whether you’re using Lotus Notes or Microsoft Exchange, or transitioning between the two – if you need to augment your email system with tools for email or content management, archiving, or e-Discovery, Sherpa Software provides solutions that are practical, reliable and affordable for organizations of all shapes and sizes.

Feel free to learn more at www.sherpasoftware.com.

As we near another Lotusphere event, I have been reaching out to the Lotus community and asking my customers whether or not I can expect to see them at this year’s show. Much to my surprise, a large portion has decided not to attend this year. I cannot confirm nor deny that all numbers will be down, but typically, my customers provide a good indication on what type of attendance to expect.

I do know, from a vendor perspective, that all the usual suspects will be there presenting and manning their booths, but what about attendees? What’s the word on the street? Are you hearing the same numbers as you normally do?  Better, worse?  I’m always curious to see what will happen once I’m there.

I do have some good news to announce… the popular pre-Lotusphere party, co-hosted by Sherpa Software and Mayflower Software, is making a return this year! Once again, we will be holding our annual party right before the Sunday night Welcome Reception.  Come join us as we get your Lotusphere 2012 week started.  This year’s “Mobilize to Socialize” party will be held on January 15th from 4:30 – 6:30pm at the Crescent Terrace. Enjoy a mix of networking with Lotus experts while sipping on our almost famous Lotustini cocktails! This year’s theme is inspired by the thought of collaborating and socializing with leading industry experts from all over the world.

While you are cruising through the showcase floor, be sure to stop by booth #528 and check out our latest product offerings.  We have many new and exciting changes coming to Sherpa’s Discovery Attender that will make your Legal & HR staff happy.  Compliance Attender has recently added a Classification Module to its extensive real-time document management capability. Mail Attender, after 11 years, is still growing and considered one of the best total email management products you’ll find anywhere.

And oh yeah, and there will be give-aways at the booth too.  Stop by and give the Wheel of Cash & Prizes a spin to see what you win. There might even be a famous Pittsburgh Steelers Terrible Towel or two.

See everyone in a few weeks in Sunny Orlando!