Open source customization and integration services outfit Linux Box has recently launched Enkive, an email management suite designed to archive emails from the moment they're received or sent, as opposed to waiting until the sender chooses to back up their emails.

The organization says that its software addresses issues of regulatory compliance and also offers some litigation support. As well as reducing storage costs by eliminating redundant messages, it also has an advanced search option that searches attachments too.

Enkive's systematic approach reconstructs messages in the search and retrieval process -- using the body of the message and its attachments -- instead of relying on the traditional method of only checking text and metadata information such as sender, dates, recipient and subject. Archived content can then be encrypted (at a company's discretion) and is only accessible to authorized users.

"Even if compliance is not a key requirement, email activity represents a record of organizational communications that should be archived and made retrievable," said Elizabeth Ziph, CEO of The Linux Box."We developed Enkive in response to client requests for an email archiving system with more dynamic management and security features than was currently available. Open source archiving systems typically lack the ability to retain email based on policies that are time and content dependent. Enkive allows organizational decision makers to define and implement retention and retrieval policies to determine what to keep and what to purge."

Enkive uses the Alfresco open source as a framework for document/record management and has been in beta testing with a number of clients for the past couple of months. The commercial version is expected soon.