Getting compliance out of the datacenter

Every now and then I have to touch on compliance -- not because I like the topic, but because it has quickly become a significant aspect of data management and, therefore, of storage. 

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Companies are today much more aware of regulatory burdens than they were only a few years ago. In fact, at that time readers often asked me to clarify the specific laws I was referring to in my articles. I rarely get that kind of question anymore.

It's not up to date, but if it's any consolation, this world map clearly shows that other nations also have their share of legal ties to deal with. However, many voices suggest that the regulatory burden is making U.S. companies less competitive.

For example, two very prominent figures (Sen. Charles Schumer and New York mayor Michael Bloomberg) recently co-authored an article published in the Wall Street Journal where they say, "Unless we improve our corporate climate, we risk allowing New York to lose its pre-eminence in the global financial-services sector." (The article is here, but you'll need a subscription to the WSJ to see the full text.)

You may agree more or less with that opinion, but the fact remains that staying compliant is not optional and has a big cost for all but the smallest companies. The additional storage space needed to preserve items such as e-mail messages or other digital records that may be the target of a subpoena is an all-too-obvious burden.

"Some of our customers are putting away 400GB [more] per day," says Peter Mojica, vice president of product strategy and management for AXS-One. AXS-One is a software company with a rich portfolio of applications called the Compliance Platform. The company addresses various data retention challenges, including e-mail, file, and database records archiving. Purchasing similar applications is another price companies must pay in their quest to comply with the various rules and regulations.

Over the years, AXS-One has attracted an impressive list of partners, including IBM, Microsoft, SAP, and Sun. Moreover, its applications are certified to work with popular solutions such as EMC's Centera and NetApp's SnapLock.

My conversation with AXS-One was not to learn about a new product but rather a partnership with EDS that will make it possible for AXS-One to offer its applications as an outsourced service -- in addition to the licensed software and ASP approaches.

Mojica explains that AXS-One developers have been working for the last two and half years to make the platform suitable for outsourcing. "The expectation is that if something stops in the software, that's going to trigger an alert on someone's screen," he says.

Moijca adds that the outsourced version of these applications allows remote monitoring of key tasks (such as archiving) and will give end-users an independent search capability for their records, including e-mail messages.

AXS-One is confident that the hosted approach (the company plans to sell it according to a utility model) will have a better price/features ratio and will attract more business. If that proves true, customers may find that staying compliant isn't necessarily a first step toward being less competitive or risking bankruptcy.

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