Province of Zeeland tackles e-mail mountain
InfoWorld
Auteur: Maarten Hell
News
MDES in the media
InfoWorld
Zeeland Province tackles the e-mail mountain
Author: Maarten Hell
Annually, the Province of Zeeland receives and sends thousands of e-mails, of which many have to be saved and stored. Division into three categories of data should bring order to the growing e-mail mountain and result in savings.
An analysis revealed that the number of e-mails to and from Zeeland Province is increasing at a rate of 416 percent annually. Every year, some seven million e-mails are sent, of which some 15 percent have to be saved under requirements of the Archive Law. This includes, for example, decisions made by the provincial council.
Server clogged-up
The province’s operational system contains 1,250,000 e-mails of which 440,000 have attachments such as construction drawings. This overload of e-mails some with large attachments places a heavy load on the e-mail server. "At present, this proliferation of emails claims 40 gigabytes of our storage capacity," says André Roelse, ICT Head for Zeeland Province. "The growing e-mail mountain is now causing our exchange server to clog up."
Research and Consultancy MDES HotColdFrozenData pointed out that the storage capacity will have to be expanded to 100 gigabytes within two years if measures are not taken. The installation of an extra e-mail server would only increase the management complexity, concludes André Roelse. "We want a smart solution to relieve the burden on our e-mail server, by which e-mails to be saved are stored in one place where they don’t overload the operational system and where they can be retrieved as required."
Document status
Zeeland Province has identified the types of documents in the organization. “All documents on the province’s network have been temporarily scanned,” explains Frank Bertram of MDES. This has led to the identification of hot, cold and frozen data.
"Hot data can be modified such as a memorandum which is still being processed. While cold data are final and thus no longer being modified but may still be used or consulted from time to time. Frozen data are stored on the network but nothing more is done with these data.
Advantages
With insight into the different types of information, the management of a digital archive system becomes simpler and cheaper. According to André Roelse, "There is a saving on back-up media, back-up and retrieval are quicker, and there is more control over the files. Moreover, the province can ensure that the regulations on storage management are met."
Zeeland Province is not the only organization with problems in processing e-mails. A study in 2006 indicates that in one-third of British companies, e-mail management is in 'complete chaos'.
