AVeS partners with Symantec.cloud on Enterprise Vault.cloud service to SMEs

Leading information security specialist AVeS has been chosen by Symantec South Africa as one of its official partners in launching the revolutionary new Symantec Enterprise Vault.cloud service to the SME market - which is designed to assist businesses in addressing the challenges of e-mail storage management, legal discovery and regulatory compliance - at the National Small Business Chamber's (NSBC) 'My Biz Expo', on 29 March 2012.

The NSBC is the largest organisation representing the interests of small and medium enterprises in South Africa, and the 'My Biz Expo' serves as a platform to assist entrepreneurs in various aspects of business, from buying or starting up a business, through to growing and expanding a business.

AVeS managing director Charl Ueckermann believes that launching the Symantec Enterprise Vault.cloud service at the 'My Biz Expo' will greatly benefit small business owners. “Small businesses have the same requirements as large companies when it comes to protecting information, as they are exposed to the same types of risks; however, they do not have the large corporate budgets to deal with these threats,” he explains.

E-mail is one of the most critical assets for business and with worldwide e-mail traffic projected to exceed 500 billion messages per day by 2013, Ueckermann notes that managing e-mail has never been more challenging. “Not only do your employees need access to their e-mail accounts to conduct business efficiently, you must also manage historical copies of e-mail to comply with current regulatory requirements.”

Ueckermann points out that the Symantec Enterprise Vault.cloud service provides small businesses with the peace of mind that they will only pay for the technology they require, while being provided with maximum security.

“The Symantec Enterprise Vault.cloud service safely archives internal and external e-mails off site, while providing rapid on-demand access to your e-mails after they have been archived. The service's key components combine secure, single instance storage for e-mails with quick and easy search and retrieval,” he continues. “Internal and external e-mail communications are automatically captured and transmitted to be stored in redundant off-site data centres. End-users can search and restore e-mails in their personal archives via Microsoft Outlook or through a secure Web-based interface that delivers rapid search results.”

How the service works:

* An administrator sets up accounts, permissions and configures retention policies. A mail connector, journaling and a secure TLS connection are set up on the company's e-mail server.
* A highly secure external repository is established to store, manage and maintain all archived e-mails. As e-mails are sent and received within the primary e-mail system, a copy of each message, including internal e-mail, is sent directly to the data centre.
* E-mail and attachments are deduplicated and securely stored along with relevant metadata. Mail can easily be retrieved from the hosted archive by users within the company or by authorised external users.

Due to the fact that Symantec Enterprise Vault.cloud is a hosted solution with no hardware, software or client plug-ins, Ueckermann adds that the service is easy and quick to set up, with reduced ongoing management requirements. “The service is fully scalable and is a completely hosted deployment model that is compatible with customers using a hosted exchange server. What's more, Symantec's service level agreement provides a money-back remedy if availability of 99.9% is not met.”

Ueckermann explains that Symantec Enterprise Vault.cloud can assist small businesses in meeting the e-mail management requirements of various stakeholders, through the following services:

* E-mail storage management: IT can meet the needs of end-users by essentially removing quotas from their mailboxes and providing archives that can be easily searched through Outlook or a Web browser. The solution scales easily, allowing IT to add new users as needed. The size of local mail stores can also be reduced, thereby improving performance of mail servers.
* Cost containment: The solution can be quickly set up, is easy to implement, and does not require dedicated staff. Total cost of ownership can be typically lower than an onsite solution, which requires significant upfront purchase and deployment investments, as well as ongoing costs associated with administration, storage, backup, capacity management and high availability.
* Compliance: The solution allows setting of e-mail retention policies, provides optional supervision and review capabilities, and makes it easy to implement legal holds. Service options are available for customers in highly regulated industries.
* Legal discovery: Advanced legal discovery features allow internal and external legal teams, IT and human resources to collaborate and effectively review and categorise large volumes of e-mail associated with litigation.

AVeS was recently awarded the prestigious Symantec Small Business Partner (SMB) of the Year award for the second time in three years, following the company's impressive volumes in a challenging market. As a Symantec SMB Silver Partner, AVeS is recognised as an expert in delivering Symantec solutions, with a highly measurable level of customer satisfaction.

“This partnership provides AVeS clients with increased confidence and peace of mind, as Symantec SMB Silver Partners have access to internal Symantec resources, which substantially enhance available information, tools and support,” Ueckermann concludes.

The 'My Biz Expo' is being hosted by the NSBC from 9am to 5pm on Thursday, 29 March, at the Gallagher Convention Centre, in Midrand.

For more information, visit www.mybizexpo.co.za or www.nsbc.org.za.

Notes to the editor:

There are numerous photographs specific to this press release. Please visit http://media.ngage.co.za and click the AVeS link.