AT&T Now Bundling Email Archiving

AT&T this week moved to expand into an area crucial to its future: managed network services.

The Bedminster, N.J.-based company introduced an email archiving service for helping corporations and U.S. government agencies comply with new rules requiring them to save emails for several years.

Based on EMC and KVS storage technology, the service securely transmits information to one of AT&T’s 21 data centers. There, it is indexed, stored in its original format, and made available for retrieval through a Web interface.

For customers, there are several advantages, including no up-front investment in hardware, software, or personnel; reduced strain on email systems; pre-set retention periods to insure compliance; and a single point of contact.

Customers pay a monthly fee based on the number of users in their company, AT&T spokeswoman Kathryn Zawacke told internetnews.com.

Financial services and health care firms are among the target customers, says Zawacke. AT&T announced that Pioneer Investments is among the first customers for the service.

AT&T plans to deliver a new managed messaging offering this quarter and other mail and services enhancements this year for customers on complex networking systems.

It claims to be the first network operator to provide email archiving. Offerings like the archiving service, as well as an earlier web services foray, are important for AT&T’s future.

AT&T has seen its traditional long-distance business swoon because of increased competition, but believes it can move “up the computing stack” to higher value services because of its extensive Internet protocol network and close relationships with enterprise customers. As part of the push, it’s building four new data centers this year.

Story courtesy of Internet News.

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