Email Archiving
A tamper-evident copy of every message sent and received, kept for as long as your regulator or records law requires, searchable and exportable when a lawyer, an auditor or a records request asks for it.
Overview
A backup gets a mailbox back. An archive proves what was said.
Email archiving services answer a different question from backup. Backup asks whether you can restore a mailbox after it is lost. Archiving asks whether you can produce, years later, every message a particular person sent about a particular matter, show that none of them were altered or deleted, and hand them over in a form a lawyer or a records officer will accept. HIPAA, the FINRA and SEC rules that bind financial firms, and the public-records and open-meetings laws that bind cities, counties and school districts all expect the second, and a mailbox its user can clean out does not provide it.
We run archiving as a journaling service: every inbound, outbound and internal message in Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace is copied as it passes through the mail system into independent, tamper-evident storage, where it stays for the retention period your regulation or records schedule requires — regardless of what the user later deletes. Retention is set per policy, a legal hold freezes anything related to a matter, search runs across every mailbox at once, and exports come out in the formats discovery and records requests ask for. Old PST files scattered across laptops are imported so the archive is complete, and an audit log records who searched for what.
Capabilities
What's included
- Journaling of every messageInbound, outbound and internal mail captured as it passes through Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, independent of the mailbox and of what the user does later.
- Tamper-evident retentionMessages stored so they cannot be altered or deleted before the retention period ends, with the record to show it.
- Retention policies by regulationPeriods set to HIPAA, FINRA and SEC rules, state public-records schedules or your counsel's guidance, and applied automatically.
- Legal holdA matter opened in minutes freezes every relevant message for its duration, however long the normal retention is.
- Search and export for discoveryFull-text search across all mailboxes by person, date, keyword or attachment, with exports in the formats attorneys and records officers accept.
- Legacy PST importArchive files from old Outlook installs and departed staff collected and imported so the archive has no gaps.
- Audit logWho searched, what they searched for and what was exported, recorded for the compliance file.
How It Works
Delivered through managed IT
Archiving runs on NinjaOne's SaaS backup and archiving service, built on the Dropsuite platform NinjaOne acquired, with storage independent of Microsoft and Google. Where you already use our Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace backup, archiving is enabled on the same platform rather than bought as a second product.
Why Atlas
Secure. Reliable. Responsive.
Flat monthly fee
Predictable per-device pricing. No surprise invoices and no hourly meter running while your team waits for help.
Proactive, not reactive
Monitoring, patching, and automation run around the clock — so most issues are resolved before your staff ever notice them.
Responsive & accountable
One team that knows your environment and answers fast. You reach a real technician, not a ticket queue in another time zone.
Month-to-month
We earn your business every month. No multi-year lock-in — you stay because the service works, not because a contract traps you.
Common Questions
Questions we get asked
What is the difference between email archiving and email backup?
Backup takes a periodic copy of the mailbox as it stands, so you can restore it after a deletion or an attack; if a user deleted a message before the copy ran, it is gone. Archiving captures every message the moment it is sent or received, keeps it where the user cannot touch it, and records that it has not changed. Backup is for recovery; archiving is for retention, discovery and proof. Regulated organizations need both, and we run them on one platform.
Does Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace already archive our email?
Both suites offer retention and litigation-hold features on their higher license tiers, and for some businesses those are enough. The limits are that they live inside the same tenant an attacker or an administrator can change, they depend on the right license being assigned to every user including people who have left, and searching and exporting at scale is slow and technical. An independent archive sits outside the tenant, covers everyone, and is built for the search.
Which retention period do we need?
It depends on who regulates you. HIPAA requires its documentation to be kept six years; FINRA and SEC rules for broker-dealers and advisers set their own periods and format requirements; state public-records laws give cities, counties and school districts retention schedules by record type; and many businesses with no specific rule keep everything, because storage is inexpensive next to needing something that is gone. We set the policy with you and your counsel, and the archive enforces it.
What happens when we receive a records request, a subpoena or a discovery demand?
You tell us the scope — the people, the dates, the terms — and a legal hold is placed so nothing in that scope can age out while the matter is open. We run the search across every mailbox, review the result count with you, and export the messages with attachments and metadata in the format the requesting party specified. The audit log records the search and the export, which is often required alongside the production itself.
How is email archiving priced, and what about staff who have left?
A flat monthly fee per archived mailbox, month to month, quoted before any commitment. Mailboxes of former staff stay in the archive without a Microsoft or Google license, which is usually the first saving. Importing legacy PST files is a one-time project scoped by how many there are. If you already use our Microsoft 365 backup, archiving is added on the same platform and we quote the two together.
Secure. Reliable. Responsive.
Book a consultation and we’ll map out a managed IT plan for your business. contact@atlasbm.net · (417) 619-6518