"Security has always been a concern for companies with respect to outsourcing, and recent news coverage of several high-profile data security breaches has brought added attention to this issue. It's fairly clear from the survey results that outsourced service providers must find ways to enhance the level of security they offer, so customers feel comfortable sending their data to a third party."
Michael Osterman, President, Osterman Research
For more information:
Sarah Grant
sgrant@highroad.com
514.908.0110 ext. 313
Jumana Chowdhury
jumana.chowdhury@fortiva.com
416.366.6666 ext. 385
Research Confirms More than Half of Companies Are Not Comfortable Outsourcing Data Archiving Services Due to Security Concerns
Fortiva's DoubleBlind Encryption™ technology model a new best practice that addresses key obstacles to outsourcing
July 19, 2005 – Toronto – According to a study by Osterman Research, security continues to be a primary obstacle to companies choosing to outsource business processes. Based on the results of Osterman's Hosted Messaging Market Trends, 2005-2008 survey, 86.6 per cent of respondents feel that data security is a significant concern when considering outsourced service providers, and more than half of respondents are not outsourcing their archiving requirements due to concerns around third party access to data. Fortiva's Archiving & Compliance Suite with DoubleBlind Encryption™ technology has been developed to address these legitimate concerns.
"Security has always been a concern for companies with respect to outsourcing, and recent news coverage of several high-profile data security breaches has brought added attention to this issue," said Michael Osterman, president, Osterman Research. "It's fairly clear from the survey results that outsourced service providers must find ways to enhance the level of security they offer, so customers feel comfortable sending their data to a third party."
Many experts now recommend encryption as the best protection against risk of a security breach. In March 2005, Gartner Research formally recommended that encryption "should be part of any data protection strategy," (and) "should be used as a primary security technology in the case of backup tapes containing sensitive data." With as much as 60 per cent of business-critical data residing in e-mail, this recommendation applies to nearly every e-mail archive.
"The statistics in Osterman's report confirm a need we had already perceived among customers - a need that led us to develop our DoubleBlind Encryption technology model," said Chris Tebo, chief technology officer, Fortiva. "By encrypting data at the customer site before it leaves the corporate network, and keeping it encrypted both in transmission and in storage, we can offer a level of security in outsourcing that hasn't been seen before. Even if someone could access the data, they wouldn't have the encryption key, so the data would be meaningless. As more customers demand this level of security, we believe DoubleBlind Encryption will become a model for best practices in outsourcing."
Earlier this year, Fortiva introduced the Fortiva Archiving & Compliance Suite, a managed solution that takes advantage of Fortiva's secure outsourcing model. Based on proprietary technology, the model incorporates an appliance at the customer site, which applies Fortiva's DoubleBlind Encryption™ technology to ensure all data is encrypted before leaving the customer's firewall. Data remains encrypted in transit and in storage, ensuring that the information remains private, even when in the hands of a third party. The appliance is also tightly integrated with internal resources, making it the first managed e-mail archiving solution to offer the control, data security and product integration of an in-house solution.
About Fortiva Inc.
Fortiva Inc. is a leading provider of email archiving solutions, providing end-to-end support for email policy, compliance, search & legal discovery. With its managed solution, Fortiva has helped customers across North America to create, implement and enforce a policy for email archiving and retention, while storing their archived data on Fortiva's highly secure, reliable and scaleable infrastructure. Archived data can be easily accessed through a web browser interface, resulting in end-user productivity and storage management benefits. Using proprietary DoubleBlind Encryption™ technology, Fortiva's unique hybrid model is the first to offer total data privacy in a managed solution, while offering the flexibility and integration typically available only in a software solution. Integrating with Microsoft Exchange and Active Directory, the Suite provides businesses with an easy-to-implement, easy-to-use application with real-time search and discovery, supervision and enforcement features. For more information on Fortiva, visit www.fortiva.com.