Archive360 reorganizes solution offerings around more flexible modular structure

The Archive360 Archive2Azure platform now has eight modules, which are purchased separately, allowing customers to tailor their solution to their organization’s specific needs.

Bill Tolson, Archive360’s Vice President of Marketing

Microsoft-focused archive migration software provider Archive360 has announced both an expansion and restructuring of the capabilities of Archive2Azure, their intelligent information management and archiving platform.  Archive2Azure now offers a selection of eight modules to allow customers to choose the best solution for their business’s requirements. They are: database management; file cleanup; healthcare information management and archiving; legacy application management and archiving; media management, including transcription and search; messaging; Salesforce management; and SharePoint. The company also says that in addition to having increased selection, most customers will see their costs reduced with the new organizational structure.

“Two years ago, only the messaging element was there, as Archive2Azure was our Azure product for messaging management, handling email and email archiving,” said Bill Tolson, Archive360’s Vice President of Marketing. “Over the last year, we have made changes to introduce these new capabilities, but we have just been offering them as modules to select customers.”

Archive360 introduced Archive2Azure in 2016, to move beyond the compliant mailbox migration on which they had originally built their business, and provide the same capabilities for unstructured data, and provide a broader regulatory compliance storage solution for Azure. It has since become their core product, with their original offering, the Archive2Anywhere migration platform, being rebranded to FastCollect and now being an internal capability within all eight modules.

“We worked with Microsoft, and Azure, before the introduction of Archive2Azure, but we have deepened the relationship greatly since we introduced that platform,” Tolson said. “Archive2Azure pushes a lot of data into Azure, so Microsoft has become an even bigger friend of ours. Microsoft sales people bring us into their initial meetings with customers. We work heavily with the channel, with over 50 partners including Accenture and Cognizant, who resell us as well as Azure and provide services around both. Microsoft is our biggest partner, and they have been pulling us along.”

Archive2Azure is an informational management platform that sits on top of Azure.

“It is a native Azure solution, using Azure services and that has been a big deal for Microsoft, and the large customers in particular,” Tolson said. “In addition to being native to Azure, the other big differentiator for us is that Office 365 doesn’t have a good solution for journaling, which is especially important for financials. We have the ability to meet the strict SEC requirements around message journaling for Azure.”

Adding the new modules allows Archive2Azure to do much more than before.

“With these eight stovepipes on top of the Azure platform, customers receive additional capabilities – if they require them,” Tolson said. “For example, with the Salesforce module, one can archive their entire instance. Salesforce by itself has no archiving ability, and little storage space, because databases tend not to need a lot of storage. But if you have a very large one, or you want the database archives, you can do so with this.”

In addition to the ability to mix and match solution modules and tailor their solution to their needs, Tolson said most customers will see a reduced cost compared to the old pricing system.

“They would pay more, perhaps, if they bought all the modules, but many customers will be looking at 80 to 90 per cent savings,” he said.