A CommVault Business-Value White Paper ediscovery for Ostriches: Don t Bury Your Head in the Sand

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1 A CommVault Business-Value White Paper ediscovery for Ostriches: Don t Bury Your Head in the Sand A Stepwise Guide to ediscovery the CommVault Way

2 Contents Executive Summary 3 Don t Bury Your Head in the Sand! 3 ediscovery the CommVault Way 3 CommVault Simpana ediscovery Workflow 4 Search Identifying Responsive Items 5 Refining Search Results Begin to Efficiently Reduce Your Data Set 5 Collection & Preservation Gathering Responsive Items and Applying Item-Level Legal Hold 6 Review & Classification Evaluating and Marking Items for Relevance and Privilege 6 Production Delivering ESI to Outside of Opposing Counsel 7 Conclusion 8 About CommVault 10

3 Executive Summary Many organizations choose to address ediscovery challenges only after being hit with a lawsuit. Not surprisingly, this reactive approach ends up costing the organization considerably more in dollars and resources due to shorter deadlines, the use of ad-hoc, manual restore processes, and the utilization of third parties to help locate and review data. More importantly, a reactive approach precludes the process of comprehensive planning and exposes the organization to greater risk. Don t Bury Your Head in the Sand! When an ostrich senses danger and cannot run away, it flops to the ground and remains still, with its head and neck flat on the ground in front of it. While this may be a defensible strategy for an ostrich, it hardly works for legal teams trying to fend off a barrage of ediscovery requests and their associated costs. Not surprisingly, burying your head in the sand or playing dead will not solve your ediscovery challenges. Research conducted by ESG confirms that no matter how you do the math, electronic discovery is not going away (ESG Research Report, Electronic Discovery Requirements Escalate, November 2007). Instead of ignoring the inevitable, IT and legal departments can adopt a proactive model and begin putting the processes and technology in place to efficiently handle any future ediscovery requests. By adopting CommVault Simpana software for ediscovery, IT staff can begin collecting critical data now and eliminate the time spent on gathering data from backup tapes, network shares, and employee workstations when a request is received. When the need arises, in-house or outside counsel can immediately conduct searches across the enterprise to identify and preserve responsive data without having to rely on IT! Gone are the days of the mad dash for collection, search, and preservation. With CommVault Simpana software, you can implement a streamlined solution now and preclude tomorrow s headache of increased cost and risk. ediscovery the CommVault Way CommVault s ediscovery solution parallels the workflow set forth by the attorneys and technologists that make up the Electronic Discovery Reference Model (EDRM) working group. Using CommVault Simpana software, Electronically Stored Information (ESI) is gathered from throughout the organization, including s, files, SharePoint records, and backup data and is placed in a central repository. That data is then fully content-indexed and can be made available to both in-house and outside counsel for ediscovery operations, making CommVault Simpana software a compelling solution that addresses complete end-to-end ediscovery according the EDRM model (see Figure 1). 3

data. Business productivity can be increased, risk mitigated, and multi-channel decision-making and collaboration enhanced.

4 Figure 1: Modern ediscovery is about conformance to the Electronic Discovery Reference Model (EDRM). By holistically managing all forms of ESI and extracting real knowledge from the information flowing through their systems, businesses can finally realize the full impact, value and return of their data. Business productivity can be increased, risk mitigated, and multi-channel decision-making and collaboration enhanced. With unprecedented control in the hands of key decision makers, legal compliance officers or business end-users, organizations can better manage information throughout its lifecycle and capitalize on its business value. The ability to quickly find both active and historical information for legal discovery, compliance and regulatory requirements has lifted an enormous burden... It also gives our legal, HR and internal auditing teams a big productivity boost, enabling them to dramatically improve e-discovery response times by conducting the searches themselves. -Major Utility Company CommVault Simpana ediscovery Workflow The objective of any ediscovery effort is to efficiently cull down a data set as a matter progresses so that the end result is a succinct collection of non-privileged, responsive items that can then be produced to either outside or opposing counsel. By leveraging the built-in workflow and multiple features of CommVault s ediscovery solution, attorneys can easily achieve this goal with little or no help from their IT staff, essentially eliminating the IT bottleneck that often occurs throughout many ediscovery efforts. 4

5 Search Identifying Responsive Items n Once the search terms have been set forth internally or agreed upon with opposing counsel, an attorney or paralegal can log into the web-based search console to begin identifying responsive data. Queries can be as simple as a few keywords or a complex combination of custodians, file types, date ranges, and other search parameters. It is important to note that our search technology is based on widely used-search methodology that is common to legal research solutions (e.g. Westlaw, LexisNexis), eliminating the need for additional training for legal teams around search. n In addition to conducting manual searches as described above, CommVault s ediscovery solution can also be configured to conduct automated searches. This is useful for ongoing matters where data must be identified and collected on a regular basis. This capability eliminates the time required by attorneys and paralegals to conduct the searches themselves, freeing up valuable hours that can be spent on other matters. n Regardless of whether a search yields ten or ten thousand hits, search results are presented immediately in a format that is easy to comprehend and that will allow a user to quickly determine whether an item is related to the matter at hand. Results include several item descriptors including file name, file type, received/modified date and time, and other metadata. The user may view the full content of an item instantly, which allows them to quickly determine responsiveness. Refining Search Results Begin to Efficiently Reduce Your Data Set With CommVault Simpana, we are 100% confident we can retrieve the information associated with almost any customer or business transaction. -FSA Group n Based on the search parameters used, the initial result set is likely to contain non-responsive items. Users can begin to narrow their result set by using our Search-within-a-Search feature which applies additional search terms to the set, foregoing the need to begin a new query. n Advanced sorting and filtering features allow a user to view data based on keywords, tags, file type, time frame, file/subject name, relevance, and size. Additionally, a user can create multiple custom filters. These tools can be leveraged to hasten the reduction process and eliminate items from a set that are non-responsive, essentially reducing the amount of data that will be reviewed internally or by costly third-parties. 5

6 Collection & Preservation Gathering Responsive Items and Applying Item-Level Legal Hold n After non-responsive items have been eliminated, items are placed into a Review Set. A Review Set is simply a grouping of matter-related items where additional ediscovery operations can be applied. Review Sets can be created manually by a user or automatically based on policies. Automatic creation groups matter-related items into a Review Set so that an attorney or paralegal can begin the review process, at their convenience. Items can be added or removed from a Review Set as a matter progresses so that the final Review Set contains only relevant and non-privileged ESI. n In order to protect against the alteration or destruction of critical data, a user may preserve data using our one-click Legal Hold capability. This can be done very easily within the CommVault solution and is simply a matter of selecting one or multiple items within a Review Set and applying the appropriate Legal Hold. The solution then makes a forensically-sound copy of the item, meaning the item is preserved in its original state without any alteration of file metadata. The item is then placed in a separate repository until the Legal Hold is lifted. This process protects against two common occurrences 1) the automated destruction of data according to established retention policies; and 2) the deliberate alteration or destruction of data by rogue employees. n Legal Holds are easy to configure and can be created by either an IT administrator or a member of the legal group. Multiple holds can be applied to a single item and can only be removed by those users who have the requisite security rights. n Legal Holds can be applied automatically without requiring the ongoing attention of an attorney. This is useful for ongoing matters where data needs to be collected and preserved on a regular basis. n CommVault s item-level Legal Hold eliminates the need to retain tapes that may contain only one or just a few items that need to be preserved and allows organizations to destroy non-responsive items according to their original retention policy. Review & Classification Evaluating and Marking Items for Relevance and Privilege n The most time consuming, and thus costly, element of any ediscovery effort is the review process. According to an ESG survey, the greatest cost in the electronic discovery process is the processing, review and analysis phase (ESG Research Report, Electronic Discovery Requirements Escalate, November 2007). Reviewers need tools that will not only speed up the initial review of an item but will also leverage past review efforts and eliminate the processing of unresponsive data. 6

7 n As part of a Review Set, an item can be viewed in either an HTML format or its original file format (e.g., as an , a pdf, a PowerPoint, etc). Search words are highlighted and bolded for quick identification. n As part of the review workflow, an item can be marked as responsive, non-responsive, and/or privileged, etc. These tags are customizable and can be applied to one or more items at a time. More importantly, these tags can be viewed in future searches and reviews so that a Self-service search and legal discovery produced a major productivity booth while saving hundreds of thousands of dollars on outsourced costs. - ICOS/Biologics reviewer can quickly identify how an item was treated in a past matter. This method of classification not only speeds up the initial review process, but eliminates duplicate work-effort and over time, thereby reducing overall review costs. n Users can also apply comments to an item, remove it from a Review Set, and even send it to an Enterprise Records Management solution, such as SharePoint, for sharing with third-parties. Production Delivering ESI to Outside or Opposing Counsel n The last phase of the ediscovery process involves the delivery of data to appropriate third parties. This can easily be accomplished through our export capability which allows a user to export relevant, non-privileged information to a PST or NSF file (for s and attachments) or to a compressed file (e.g. Zip file). n Exported data can then be downloaded to a hard drive or to protected, removable media such as a CD or DVD. Exported data can also be uploaded to a secure FTP site for quick online delivery to outside counsel, eliminating the hidden costs of shipping boxes of paper files. Given the flexible formats and methods of production, outside or opposing counsel can easily review the data upon receipt. 7

Data is collected real time so that when a request is issued, your legal team can immediately begin searching, reviewing and preserving relevant data.

8 Conclusion Don t ignore the inevitable. With CommVault Simpana software, your organization can proactively implement the processes and technology that will allow you to quickly and efficiently respond to ediscovery requests. Data is collected real time so that when a request is issued, your legal team can immediately begin searching, reviewing and preserving relevant data. Moreover, our built-in workflow not only eliminates the need to use third party collectors and reviewers, it also optimizes valuable attorney hours therefore reducing the overall cost of discovery. Simpana software has been engineered to drive efficiency throughout the whole EDRM process. To that end, proactively managing ESI data for ease of immediate search, identification, collection, and preservation results in a dramatically simplified model (see Figure 2). Figure 2: The proactive management of ESI leads to a much more simplified and efficiency driven ediscovery workflow model. 8

9 Optimize your ediscovery process today and experience the benefits of leveraging CommVault s best-in-class solution: n Conduct preliminary searches to determine the merits of a case and appropriate strategy. n Empower legal teams to conduct their own search and review, eliminating dependence on IT and/or outside discovery vendors. n Enable global, one-click legal holds across the organization. n Ensure data is being collected and retained in accordance with your retention policies across multiple repositories. n Collect, preserve, review and produce all types of ESI, regardless of physical location, as part of a repeatable and defensible process. n Discover sensitive, confidential, and compliance-related information throughout the enterprise. n Promote records of business to Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) for easy knowledge sharing. n Provide detailed reports to prove data authenticity. n Achieve short-term ROI by eliminating the use of costly, third-party collectors and reviewers. 9

10 About CommVault A singular vision a belief in a better way to address current and future data management needs guides CommVault in the development of Singular Information Management solutions for high-performance data protection, universal availability and simplified management of data on complex storage networks. CommVault s exclusive single-platform architecture gives companies unprecedented control over data growth, costs and risk. CommVault s Simpana software of products was designed to work together seamlessly from the ground up, sharing a single code and common function set, to deliver superlative backup and recovery, archive, replication, search and resource management capabilities. More companies every day join those who have discovered the unparalleled efficiency, performance, reliability, and control only CommVault can offer. Information about CommVault is available at CommVault s corporate headquarters is located in Oceanport, New Jersey, in the United States. For More Information on CommVault ediscovery solutions: n n info@commvault.com CommVault Worldwide Headquarters n 2 Crescent Place n Oceanport, NJ n n Fax: CommVault Regional Offices: United States n Europe n Middle East & Africa n Asia-Pacific n Latin America & Caribbean n Canada n India n Oceania CommVault Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. CommVault, CommVault and logo, the CV logo, CommVault Systems, Solving Forward, SIM, Singular Information Management, Simpana, CommVault Galaxy, Unified Data Management, QiNetix, Quick Recovery, QR, CommNet, GridStor, Vault Tracker, InnerVault, QuickSnap, QSnap, Recovery Director, CommServe, CommCell, ROMS, and CommValue are trademarks or registered trademarks of CommVault Systems, Inc. All other third party brands, products, service names, trademarks, or registered service marks are the property of and used to identify the products or services of their respective owners. All specifications are subject to change without notice. 10

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