Looking for suitable Mail Archiving Solution for Non Profit

I need help to find a proper mail archiving solution for a non-profit firm. There are around 6K mails boxes which are yet pending in the database. Now I cannot recommend him to sync the same to their new server where it is of no use. But for future references the mail can be kept archived in some place. I need to provide advice to my friend related to proper solution by which he can reduce the existing mail boxes which are not in usage. I tried to locate some help but many of them are charging at high rates. This is just one time job and I do not think the mails might be needed in future. Any suggestions on this appreciated.

If you are working on Exchange 2010 then you do need to worry about this. Exchange 2010 offers you a nice option to archive it is far more better than others. As it is wise not to delete those emails or use any other third party solution which can hamper your data. So many prefer to preserve the content and use as and when needed. One more important thing to ensure that there should be a proper search feature. Exchange 2010 is equipped with that. You can simply access the mail archives and move them as and when needed. Exchange 2010 also offer you a process of auto archiving where there is no need to monitor the archiving process. It happens on the base of settings done by you. Other than this you can search prescribed mail box with simple search feature provided. It also reduces your cost as you do not need to go for any separate email archive product. It reduces the pain of maintaining a separate mail box also. Archive Mailbox is simple a folder is generated in your Exchange interface and you just need to move the boxes from one folder to another. You can learn ample of information on that on msdn and a proper guide is available to perform this action easily.

There are some number of third party programs which do this. But they will charge for the service surely. There is a software called as MailBase. This tool let you to store your access mail in a archive folder. Later on you can get rid of unnecessary mails and use the current one more frequently. What this tool do is when you installed it in your system it creates a copy of email that you sent from your system. Using the web control panel of this mail you can find what mails are sent and received. You can simply delete the one which you do not required. Even when the mail is deleted from the mailbox you can see a copy on this tool's web interface. It support unlimited accounts.

Even I agree to go with Exchange 2010 Mail Archive feature. Exchange server is well managed equipped with many features and functionality. I had used a mail archive feature sometime ago and sent around 3000 mail boxes in the archive folder. Till yet there is no issue and all works fine. I can provide you with the steps how to perform mail archiving in Exchange 2010. If you need hassle free setup you can begin with Archive Mailbox wizard. The archive mail box can be created at the time when you create a user account at that time you can create a email archive for the user. If there are many mailboxes the process becomes a bit tedious to transfer the same to archive mailbox. The only requirement to use this is Exchange Enterprise Client Access License (CAL). This is needed or else Archive will not work at all.

• Run Archive Mailbox Wizard
• To archive mail box of existing user click on the user and > EMC. Go to Recipient Configuration > Right Click > Enable Archive > OK
• You can see the change in icon as the user is transferred to the archive mailbox. Now right click on user > properties > mailbox feature. Here check that the Archive feature is enabled and provide the name of Archive Mailbox. If not then it will take the default name as Username.
• Later on you can manage the quota set for warning. For that you have to go in Mailbox Settings > Quota > Properties.
• After when you are done with all stuff you can run Outlook 2010 and there you can see the Archive Mailbox. Here you can directly move emails, or create folders directly.

I have some list of products that can help you for archiving mails. This are commercial tools. I will advice you to have a look in detail about the pricing stuff.

1. Proofpoint Archive : This is a kind of third party tool for Microsoft Exchange. It offer you mail storage and control the archive as per your need. It is a kind of SaaS solution which is developer for special mail archiving operation.
2. Exchange Server Archiver : This is another archiver which is used for data management. With the help of outlook addin you can simply use this with your current software and integrate the same easily. You can search in archived mail as well as in non-archived mail. The installation is quiet easy.
3. MailStore Server : This is a bit advance tool for Mail Archiving function. I assume this has a limit where you cannot archive more than 3000 mails. So that means this would be avoided. The only reason to enlist this here is that it offer a central location to archive all your mails and maintain large amount of email data.