New E-Discovery Products Target Backup, SharePoint

Two new e-discovery products are coming to market to help IT tackle significant pain points: finding relevant information in data backups and SharePoint. At EMC World earlier this month, Index Engines announced that its collection engine can work with Data Domain, the widely-deployed deduplication and backup appliance from EMC.

And Sherpa Software announced a new version of its Discovery Attender software that can find and collect files from Microsoft's SharePoint platform. E-discovery is the process in which organizations involved in litigation find and collect data--documents, e-mail, and other electronic files--that may be relevant to the case.

As its name suggests, Index Engines specializes in creating searchable indexes of data stored on a variety of media, including backup tapes, PCs and servers. Its collection engine now supports Data Domain appliances.

The engine can search backup images on the Data Domain device and create an index, allowing administrators to pinpoint specific messages or documents. Administrators can also use the Index Engine GUI to move specific files from a backup image into a separate area on the Data Domain appliance to serve as an archive for that content. Files can also be exported to a third-party repository.

Searching backup tapes "is a task that would make seasoned IT managers blanch," says David Hill, principal at the Mesabi Group and a Network Computing contributing writer. "They need a tool like Index Engines to do the job; homegrown software would probably take a lot of resources."Administrators using the product have to ensure that the indexing process doesn't interfere with backup windows. Index Engines claims it can index a terabyte of data per hour, and can schedule and throttle its processes so as not to interfere with backup jobs. The new collection engine will be available in July. Pricing is based on user accounts and starts at $50 per account.

Sherpa Software's Discovery Attender 3.7 now includes the ability to search and collect files on Microsoft SharePoint to improve e-discovery. Microsoft has enhanced SharePoint's content management features, making it a popular repository for business documents.

In the event of litigation or potential litigation, organizations must be able to easily search SharePoint for potentially relevant information. Other features of the 3.7 release include the ability to rerun searches and search Lotus Notes mail files. Discovery Attender can also search Exchange mail boxes and PST files.

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