What is Single Instance Storage (SIS)?

There are around 8.08 billion (and counting) people living on Earth; we humans create, capture, copy, and consume around 328.77 million terabytes of data daily. But this data is not all unique. Much data in databases are duplicates. For example, research from Plauti found that 45% of new records entered into CRMs are duplicates. Duplicate data has financial implications for a company. Research from Experian et al. estimates that "bad" data, including duplicate data, costs 15% to 25% of revenue to manage and store. However, it isn't just financial costs; data duplicates have cybersecurity and privacy repercussions, with data lacking control and visibility. Single instance storage (SIS) is a method for dealing with duplicate data. Here, TitanHQ explores what single instance storage is and why it's essential in email archiving.

What is Single Instance Storage, and Why is it Important?

Organizations may keep copies of files, emails, and other data in primary storage, backup, and archives. The result is multiple copies of the same information. Duplicate data is harmful to an organization as it affects the quality of data, making search complicated, creating more points of attack on data, creating invisible silos of data, and increasing storage costs unnecessarily. Duplicate data can also lead to duplication of errors.

Single instance storage (SIS) is a technique for removing duplicate copies of data. It removes all the issues associated with duplicates by replacing duplicate copies with a single copy. SIS is a more straightforward form of data deduplication, working at the file level to remove and consolidate duplicate copies of files or emails. Notably, a SIS solution must be automatic and transparent to the user. Further, consolidating information, files, and emails helps an organization's data governance efforts and supports regulatory compliance.

Example of SIS for Email Data Duplication

Email is an excellent example of how data duplication occurs. Email messages can be held locally and in an email server—this type of data duplication results in large volumes of duplicate emails. To reduce the overhead of duplicate emails, an email server can hold the emails centrally, with no emails or attachments being held locally. Users access the emails from this central location via their connected inboxes. This configuration is optimized in conjunction with email archiving software to ensure that secure backups are always available in the event of legal requirements for messages or a ransomware attack.

How Does Single Instance Storage (SIS) Work?

Any technique that takes duplicates of data and coalescences them into a single sharable instance is a form of SIS. Email archiving solutions, like ArcTitan, use the principle of SIS as part of the solution offering.

SIS is a data management technique that works at the file or object level to eliminate redundant copies of data. This ensures that a single instance of each unique piece of information is stored. SIS solutions must be able to compare files and emails and discard duplicate elements. Single instance storage initially scans the storage system to identify duplicate files. If duplicates are located, one file copy is saved to a central repository known as the SIS Common Store. The system uses reference pointers to link to the stored version of the file in the Common Store, ensuring continued accessibility to authorized users.

As a baseline, a single-instance storage solution must handle multiple instances of files and emails. However, SIS routing can become complex when compliance policies and different versions of messages are handled. A SIS solution must ensure that copies of files and emails correctly reflect the organization's needs for eDiscovery, litigation, and compliance procedures. This requires the SIS solution to be highly configurable and designed to handle such scenarios.

SIS solutions must leverage encryption both in transit and at rest to protect against interception and to maintain authenticity. Encryption is essential as it is an expected security measure for many regulations and standards. Encryption must be backed up by robust authentication to prevent unauthorized access to stored data, emails, and files.

Essential benefits of email archiving that utilize SIS include significantly reducing the volume of duplicate emails. SIS for files and emails vastly improves storage efficiency and reduces storage needs in the cloud or on a physical device by reducing data duplication.

Single Instance Storage Scenario – Email Example

A SIS system can be used where files and emails are likely duplicated. For example, suppose two employees are cc'd in an email containing an attachment. They both save the attachment to a local drive. An SIS-based email archiving solution automatically detects the two identical files, moving one copy to the SIS common store. Both files are replaced with a link to the archived file. The email archiving system will index the email and files to allow a search to be carried out when required.

Learn More 

Further Reading

• Email Archiving Compliance: A Comprehensive Guide
• ArcTitan for Service Providers
• Top 5 Business Email Archiving Misconceptions Exposed!

How ArcTitan Can Help?

ArcTitan Email Archiving and Single Instance Storage

ArcTitan is a powerful enterprise vault solution that archives emails. ArcTitan uses SIS principles, coalescing legacy PST files into a single, searchable, secure archive. ArcTitan maintains a repository of all the emails sent and received by employees. This repository is secured using encryption and enforces robust access control to emails and attachments. ArcTitan uses SIS principles but builds upon the efficiency improvements by encompassing the features needed for access, compliance, and litigation requirements. Some of the core elements of ArcTitan include the following:

• Reduced Email Storage: ArcTitan frees up to 80% of email storage space, significantly improving email performance and efficiency. It is also fast, handling over 200 emails per second.
• Automated SIS: ArcTitan is easy to set up and use. SIS functionality is automated and transparent to the user.
• Security: All archived emails are compressed and encrypted before being stored on a separate server.
• Effective Email and Attachment Governance: ArcTitan SIS provides the visibility needed to ensure that your organization has the effective email governance required for compliance.
• Disaster Recovery: If a security incident occurs, ArcTitan will restore emails and attachments quickly.
• Ease of Use: ArcTitan integrates with M365 Outlook to automate email archiving.
• Comprehensive Audit Trails: Comprehensive audit trails are available for ease of investigation.
• eDiscovery: Fast and accurate eDiscovery to perform the legal requirements needed during litigation.
• ArcTitan deploys in minutes, and no manual installation is needed.