eDiscovery: Incremental, Single-Instance Collections vs. Data Re-Use

I recently read an article in LTN, authored by Evan Kobletz, covering the Guidance product announcement – “Guidance Adds Data Re-use Feature to EnCase eDiscovery”. After some discussion at StoredIQ, we’re actually pretty excited about the coverage. It sheds light on capability that we’ve had for years now, and probably don’t talk enough about. In fact, the article also highlights several competitors that still don’t have it. The StoredIQ term for ‘Data Re-use’ is ‘Incremental, Single-Instance Collection’, but setting aside semantics, we believe it’s a fundamental component for conducting thorough, legally sound eDiscovery collections.

What does this mean to eDiscovery customers? The first time a file is relevant to a case, we’ll take a forensically sound copy and place it on a retention server for preservation with a litigation hold tag specific to the given matter, without altering the metadata and without interrupting end users. If it’s an ongoing case, we’ll perform incremental collections – meaning that we’ll only get another copy if that file has been changed (or if other new relevant files are created). When another case crops up, and the same file is once again relevant, StoredIQ is aware that the file is already on retention and instead of taking the time, bandwidth and storage space to collect another copy StoredIQ just places an additional hold tag on the file. If your company is in a highly litigious industry or has a number of serial litigants, you can imagine the savings this can add up to over time. Only when all matters for a given file are concluded, and the obligation for legal hold is removed, will the file be available for disposition from the repository.

Possibly because StoredIQ has had this capability for quite some time, we’ve taken for granted that incremental, single-instance collection is a standard feature of any intelligent eDiscovery technology that has a collections component. And more importantly, a feature that eDiscovery customers should consider closely. Note that the article also mentions that this feature also enables users to “search collection sets from previous litigation”. That statement alone makes me wonder how many case collections have been jeopardized by not having the capability to search and produce data from the preservation location used by previous and simultaneous, on-going cases?

On a broader scale, in the LTN article, Kobletz, states, “Data reuse is a growing trend in the e-discovery industry.” We at StoredIQ actually see ‘data reuse’, to use the same term, as a trend that goes well beyond eDiscovery. The same data that your legal team needs to identify and collect for a legal matter, is also the same data that your records management team needs to classify, your IT team needs to store and manage, and your compliance officers need to govern. At the end of the day, your corporate data is all being ‘re-used’ by multiple departments – not just the legal team for multiple matters.

What companies need is the ability to identify, classify, manage, and act on their data assets – to provide value across the entire organization. That’s something you won’t get from Guidance, or any point solution eDiscovery product. At StoredIQ, we’re focused on delivering powerful information governance products that can provide the comprehensive data insight and control that corporate counsel, compliance managers, and  records managers need to make the best and most informed decisions, while meeting the stringent requirements that IT departments demand.

IDC Names StoredIQ a Leader in 2011 MarketScape: Worldwide Early Case Assessment Report

StoredIQ’s unique approach to conducting early case assessment on data “in the wild”, has been recognized by analysts at IDC as a market differentiator in their 2011 MarketScape: Worldwide Standalone Early Case Assessment Applications Report. The report evaluates the capabilities of early case assessment (ECA) vendor solutions and is designed to help CIOs, corporate legal counsel, compliance officers, and legal service providers understand the key capabilities, the evolving use cases, and market and technology dynamics for the early case assessment solutions and the broader eDiscovery market segment. Among the twelve vendors included in the report, IDC positioned StoredIQ as a leader in the standalone ECA space, a market forecasted by IDC to total $400.8 million in 2011 and reach $857.0 million in 2015.

According to IDC, “Customers cite StoredIQ’s ability to enable the analysis and culling of data at the source prior to preservation and collection as a key differentiator.” IDC goes on to say that StoredIQ “Boasts highly rated indexing, search, and retrieval performance, and the ability to scale. Customers that are looking to search and analyze the universe of content prior to collection highly rate StoredIQ’s ability to scale, as well as StoredIQ’s search and retrieval performance.”

IDC’s recognition of StoredIQ as a market leader validates our innovative and novel approach to conducting ECA prior to preservation and collection. Our powerful ability to perform early case analysis on data where it natively resides gives legal counsel the ability to assess the merits of a dispute, formulate a legal strategy, and make decisions concerning the matter far earlier in the eDiscovery process. Unique among evaluated vendors, StoredIQ’s approach yields a much stronger ROI as data is identified, understood and culled where it lives in the enterprise rather than after costly collections, culling and processing in a central location.

StoredIQ’s early case assessment offering is part of the company’s DiscoveryIQ application. Product strengths and key differentiators identified by IDC include:

• Ability to directly connect to and search a variety of data sources including: major messaging systems (Exchange, Notes/Domino), distributed endpoints, network file shares, export files, major archival and storage systems (EMCCentera, Hitachi HCAP, IBM FileNet, IBM Information Archive, NetApp Snaplock, Symantec Enterprise Vault), content management systems (EMC Documentum, IBM FileNet), and Microsoft SharePoint (including wikis and blogs in addition to document libraries), and laptops/desktops.
• Ability to enable the analysis and culling of data at the source, prior to preservation and collection.
• Highly rated indexing, search and retrieval performance, as well as the ability to scale.
• Ability to perform real-time what-if risk/reward assessments utilizing the DiscoveryIQ application. Based on different culling decisions, customers can see a real-time “scoreboard” provide updated estimates of review costs for a given data set or case.
• Streamlined workflow designed to enable IT and the legal users to collaborate throughout the eDiscovery process.

To learn more about StoredIQ’s Early Case Assessment solution:

• Download an excerpt from the IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Standalone Early Case Assessment Applications Report
• Download StoredIQ AnalyzeAnywhere Technology Brief
• Email info@storediq.com

StoredIQ Enhances Critical Legal Hold Process with Integrated Notification and Preservation

At StoredIQ, we want to change the customer mindset to define legal hold as not just the simple act of notifying custodians to preserve relevant data, but to  see it as a holistic process that includes notification tightly coupled with the analysis, collection, and preservation of responsive data.With our enhanced Legal Hold solution, we’ve unified these traditionally disjointed components, providing a simple yet robust solution for managing the entire duty to preserve process. From notification, to tracking acknowledgement, to analyzing custodial data, and finally collection and preservation – legal and IT users gain complete control and insight into the duty to preserve process with a reliable, repeatable, and auditable solution that seamlessly integrates hold notifications with the collection and preservation of data.

Historically, performing legal holds has been a very manual and labor intensive process. Spanning multiple systems, it was time consuming to administer, almost impossible to track, and relied heavily on custodian self-preservation. StoredIQ’s integrated hold notifications with intelligent data collection, as part of a comprehensive eDiscovery workflow creates a holistic and legally defensible process which eliminates the burden on custodians, improves efficiency, and reduces legal risk.

Vivian Tero, Program Director for GRC Infrastructure, IDC

The importance of an integrated legal hold solution recently came to light in Treppel v. Biovail Corp., 249 F.R.D. 111 (S.D.N.Y. April 2), which states that a standard “litigation hold” memo to company employees is not enough. As soon as litigation becomes a reasonable possibility, a potential litigant must act quickly to identify potential sources of evidence, and act to preserve that evidence.

Though it is important to notify potential custodians of their duty to preserve data, the true value of a legal hold solution is the ability to then take action on custodian data. This is why we’ve seamlessly integrated the legal hold workflow with DiscoveryIQ, StoredIQ’s eDiscovery application. Companies can ensure compliance with case law, initiate hold notifications, track acknowledgements, perform early case assessment across all matter relevant data, and perform single-instance collection to a secure retention platform.

For a complete list of Legal Hold features, download the StoredIQ Legal Hold Technology Brief, visit our Legal Hold site, or email info@storediq.com.