Symantec is offering a range of solutions to include social media in the net covered by its email and content archiving software, Enterprise Vault, with the Version 10 release.

Through partnerships with Actiance, CommonDesk, Globanet, Hanzo and Socialware, Enterprise Vault 10 automatically archives social media interactions for compliance, eDiscovery and corporate governance purposes. Organisations can comply with requirements for social media communications without restricting or banning the use of those tools.

The new version also features Symantec's data loss prevention technology to analyse Microsoft Exchange email content and metadata to help determine the archiving and retention strategy for all messages. Email content and metadata are automatically classified and assigned the appropriate archiving and retention policy, and can be flagged to be reviewed for compliance reasons.

Another new feature of Enterprise Vault 10 is the ability to archive all social media interactions for compliance and eDiscovery purposes.

“Businesses have learned how important it is to protect and preserve email, IM, documents, spreadsheets and other unstructured information, and they're learning that the same is true for social media records,” said Brian Dye, Vice President of Product Management, Symantec.

“We’ve increased the scale and performance of Enterprise Vault so our customers can effectively archive and eDiscovery the millions of records employees are creating by email, social media, SharePoint and file systems. Enterprise Vault 10 can significantly reduce risks, especially for organisations in highly litigious or regulated industries, without inhibiting the business and productivity benefits of social media and collaboration tools.”

IT organisations worldwide are mandated by corporate governance, legal and compliance groups to implement organisation-wide retention policies on their information assets. The Data Classification Service feature of Enterprise Vault 10 utilises Symantec's data loss prevention  technology to automatically classify the email and assign an appropriate archiving and retention policy.

Classifications can also be used as filters to speed up the search and review process for eDiscovery.

Additional Enterprise Vault 10 Features:
* Enterprise information archive: moves less-frequently accessed information off of expensive primary storage and servers such as Microsoft Exchange and SharePoint, IBM Lotus Domino, file servers and more to lower-tiered storage, on-premise or in the cloud;
* Global deduplication: efficiently archive information by storing just one copy of a file or message, regardless of the number of times it occurs or where it is stored, significantly lowering the long term total cost of ownership by reducing the archive size; and
* Flexible .PST and .NSF migration: automatically locate and migrate existing .PST and .NSF files into the archive, helping you regain control of the information contained within those files. Centralised control of .PST and .NSF files helps accelerate eDiscovery while reducing storage costs, backup windows and information risk.