As one of the email archiving pioneers, Tangent designed the DataCove email archiver to exceed all of the ediscovery and investigatory needs of organizations ranging in size.
While DataCove offers a well laid out user interface, quick and easy deployment and the search functionality that includes fuzzy and federated search, its lower-end appliances are SATA-based. In terms of crucial system aspects such as speed, data protection and cost optimization, SATA controllers can jeopardize efficiency and reduce reliability.
Another problem with DataCove’s email archiving solution is that PST import and export is possible only if handled through a separate tool, which might hinder larger exports and complicate the process.
If your organization is currently using DataCove for email archiving but needs an alternative system, we have compiled a list of DataCove alternatives that we believe might be a better and a more complete fit.
Office 365
Office 365 offers a number of products and services, email archiving among them. This has led many organizations to centralize their email management and archiving efforts.
The main advantages of O365 archiving lie in great integration with the existing infrastructure. However, Microsoft does not specialize in email archiving, so O365 often struggles with some of the basic tasks such as assigning roles to users, setting up permission levels, legacy data import and large exports.
Its search capabilities still cannot compare to the advanced search offered by expert companies. Another major drawback of Microsoft’s solution is that its default limit of search results is 250, which is rarely sufficient for any large scale legal case. Searching through zipped files is also not possible.
Storage and pricing: Microsoft Office 365 might be a good option for smaller companies that can’t afford to buy business software because the subscription includes the complete Office package, with services available for PCs, tablets and phones.
A downside is that the business plan that comes with archiving and compliance capabilities starts at $20 per user per month if prepaid for a year, while Exchange online archiving as a separate service starts at $3 per user/month.
Barracuda
Barracuda has been a recognizable name and a trustworthy provider of not only email archiving, but also other complementary products and services such as web filters, firewalls, security and protection programs.
Some of Barracuda Message Archiver’s strongest points are the ability to connect appliances into a cluster and conduct combined searches, easy deployment and mobile and desktop access. On the other hand, customers have noted drawbacks such as slow search speed, a clunky user interface and “hit-and-miss support”.
Barracuda provides archiving support for non-email content and instant messages, but doesn’t support exporting to EML or PDF. Importing legacy data from other solutions can be problematic. Critics also cite problems such as complicated pricing and technical support plans.
Storage and pricing: Barracuda’s storage ranges from 500GB to 66TB, with prices starting at approximately $3,500 per terabyte.
Smarsh
Founded in 2001, Smarsh is a global leader in email archiving that focuses on the public sector and the financial services industry. Apart from email archiving, Smarsh offers a separate discovery and supervision app that integrates with the archive and helps users to carry out supervisory reviews and risk assessment and prepare for litigation.
Smarsh gets points for the variety of services and capabilities it offers (various packages, social media, text messages and website archiving) and the ability to export to multiple formats.
However, customers cite problems with search speed, unavailability, unannounced maintenance, lack of technical documentation and training. On top of that, Smarsh has a very complicated pricing structure and may end up costing several times more than other competitor solutions.
Storage and pricing: As a cloud-based platform, Smarsh offers bottomless storage that can be scaled up and down based on the organization’s needs. When it comes to pricing, Smarsh may not be the best option as they charge for implementation (the price varies based on company size), ingestion of legacy data and end user access to personal archive.
They are particularly ineffective and unpredictable in terms of cost for large organizations – implementation only can cost up to $10,000, while the import of legacy data starts at $10 per GB.
Intradyn
Intradyn is another industry key player that offers archiving support for email, social media and text messages, with solutions available in three deployments – on-premise, cloud and virtual.
Intradyn’s Email Archiver is a solution that has good compliance and ediscovery capabilities and is often praised for its search functionality, intuitive user interface, data retention policies, redaction feature and backup.
On the flip side, Intradyn relies on stubbing for storage reduction and cannot export files to PST directly, which means that users might have difficulty handling large PST exports.
Storage and pricing: Intradyn may not be the best option if you are a large organization looking for an in-house solution, as their hardware is not the most reliable and the maximum storage capacity is 8TB. The prices start at $4 per user per month.
Jatheon
Jatheon Technologies offers on-premise and cloud solutions that can archive email, social media, mobile and voice messages. The on-premise solution, Jatheon Archiving Suite, contains enterprise grade hardware and earns points for its search capabilities, handling large exports, customizable user roles and retention policies and 24/7 monitoring and support.
The company also offers free hardware replacement after 4 years and has storage expansion units, customizable social media, mobile and IM modules and disaster recovery plans.
The cloud-based solution, Jatheon Cloud, has a newly-designed user interface which has been praised for its search capabilities and innovative and intuitive approach to feature design. Negative aspects of Jatheon’s offering include the lack of encrypted backup, redaction feature and no mobile app.
Storage and pricing: Jatheon has 6 appliance models ranging from 6 to 96TB. Prices start at approximately $3000 per terabyte with discounts for longer prepaid periods. Jatheon Cloud starts at $2.5 per user per month if prepaid for five years.
If your organization needs a DataCove alternative with a richer feature set and more reliable technical support, these alternatives might provide better value for money. Jatheon is a global leader in email, social media and mobile communications archiving and ediscovery with 15 years of experience with on-premise archiving and a new, latest-generation cloud email archiving solution.
To learn how Jatheon can help you choose and implement the right archiving solution for your business, contact us or schedule your personal demo.
