CommVault is adding information governance to the list of capabilities of its Simpana 9 software, promising it will reduce the time, cost and risks associated with ediscovery, compliance, archiving and records management.

This derives from centrally managing policies in Simpana.

CommVault claims that legacy information management solutions typically lack integration across different application sources and tiers of storage. They fail to manage information over its lifecycle, thus creating unnecessary risk, escalating costs and promoting discrete silos of data that inherently lack the larger information governance “picture”.

Operational challenges arise when organisational data (e.g., email, attachments, databases, video, audio, instant messaging, etc.) of a similar nature is viewed, stored and managed in isolation with little integration across policies and procedures.

Simpana 9’s Information Governance platform delivers solutions to address Retention Lifecycle Management (RLM) including enterprise-wide intelligent search through a purpose built UI; customisable and automated workflow for ediscovery and compliance; records classification retention and declaration; as well as privacy related content and subsequent violations alerts.

Workflow efficiency is improved by moving information between different users to expedite record review, classification and supervision.

Instead of forcing rigid procedures that can impact end user productivity, customizable workflows can map to organizational eDiscovery or records directives to ensure governance objectives are met.

Proactive evidence collection ensures that legal holds can be executed consistently on a single automated command and efficiently exported in industry compliant formats to streamline eDiscovery.

A new archive Application Programming Interface (API) lets customers designate records to be archived, including from SAP ArchiveConnect, to address their long-term storage requirements, thereby boosting operational efficiency, streamlining the lifecycle retention of the records and reducing the overall cost of retention.

Business records managed by Simpana 9 software can be automatically moved directly into records management systems, such as SharePoint, for improved collaboration and information sharing.

Records can be directed to integrated service and information cloud platforms, including Iron Mountain’s cloud archiving and Microsoft’s Windows Azure, to further reduce storage costs and administrative overhead.

N. Robert Hammer, CommVault’s chairman, president and CEO, said, “The rising tide of information governance means now, more than ever, organisations must unite critical corporate assets under a common foundation for improved management, access and retention."