Google is now offering customers of its Apps for Business communications and collaboration suite an optional service that automatically captures, archives and indexes their employees’ e-mail messages and IM chat sessions.
Called Apps Vault, the new governance and e-discovery service is designed for companies that want to store this type of data and have it easily accessible in case they are involved in a lawsuit or regulatory investigation and need to provide this information as part of the proceedings.
“With the ability to search and manage data based on terms, dates, senders, recipients and labels, Vault helps you find the information you need, when you need it,” Jack Halprin, Google’s Head of eDiscovery, wrote in a blog post on Wednesday.
Apps Vault, like the Apps suite, is cloud-based software. Google claims that customers can deploy Apps Vault “in a matter of minutes,” as opposed to traditional on-premise systems which can be difficult to set up. Apps Vault costs $5 per user, per month.
Apps for Business, which includes Gmail, Talk, Calendar, Docs, Sites, IT management and security features, costs $50 per user, per year. A month-to-month option costs $5 per user, per month.
