Enterprise search vendor Autonomy has added new eDiscovery capabilities
for virtual environments to its Autonomy Zantaz Introspect software.
Autonomy said the new feature in Introspect makes it the first to offer
automated search or discovery in a wide range of virtual environments,
including VMWare, a process that usually requires a time-consuming, manual
set of steps, if it’s done at all.
So-called eDiscovery is particularly relevant to companies that need to
be government regulations such as the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure
(FRCP), which states software must be able to find and hold all information
relevant to litigation, including more complex file types such as virtual
images, multimedia attachments, voice, video, IM and Blackberry messages.
Autonomy acquired
Zantaz, a specialist in content archiving, last year for $375 million.
“What’s been happening in eDiscovery is that there was a focus on
searching e-mail, and then attachments like PowerPoint presentations, and
then multimedia attachments and even voicemail, all of which our IDOL
platform can handle without any problem,” Nicole Egan, chief marketing
officer at Autonomy, told InternetNews.com.
“Now there are legal
requirements that you have to be able to search everything, including
virtual servers, which is a hard process and many companies have just
ignored doing it,” Egan said.
Egan said Introspect has over 1,000 connectors to different file formats
and has the broadest, automated solution for eDiscovery. The virtualization
discovery feature is an add-on that requires a separate license for
Introspect customers to activate.
Egan admitted in a phone interview that she isn’t aware of a legal case where a defendant was specifically asked to produce content stored in a virtual environment, but said it’s only a matter of time.
“It’s an education process,” she said. “I can see prosecutors start
to ask if information provided as part of the discovery process includes a
company’s virtual environment. As soon as it becomes part of case law the
interest will explode.”
Egan is at the Legaltech tradeshow this week in New York where Autonomy is showing off its new eDiscovery features.
IDC analyst Sue Feldman said Autonomy was already a leader in providing
search to a number of rich media formats and the additions to Introspect
stand to improve its position.
“For large companies this isn’t just something nice to have, but
something they could be legally required to provide in the case of public
companies,” Feldman said. “Some companies dithered at first about
Sarbanes-Oxley
clear. But now it’s quite clear that you’re required to keep records and be
able to search voice and email as well as all other communications.”
