What is Google Vault?

With more transactions taking place electronically, businesses need a way to keep track of their communications to help in the event of a dispute. In the past, you could grab the necessary paperwork from your filing cabinet, and the case could be resolved.

But now that we rely on email for buyer-seller discussions, there are a couple of problems. Not least the ease with which emails and documents can be deleted. With the relevant message gone, how can you prove which party is correct?

For instance, some industries – legal and finance – require businesses to keep highly accurate records of all their dealings. Losing and deleting creates a compliance problem with serious legal and financial ramifications. For example, HMRC recommends keeping business records for at least 6 years. If you lose this data and HMRC needs it, you may find your business in trouble. 

Keeping email and document archives indefinitely is costly in terms of the physical storage required and the administrative overheads of running those systems. But for Google Workspace by Kimbley IT clients, there is a simple solution—Google Vault. Unlike other eDiscovery solutions, Google Vault has no additional charge or licence.

What does Google Vault do?

At the most basic level, Google Vault allows you to securely retain email messages and documents for your chosen period. These messages are easily searchable and accessible, so you can refer to them whenever needed. 

Google Vault is ideal for situations where a member of your team leaves. Rather than keeping their mailbox open (a security risk), you can refer to the copies stored in Google Vault whenever you want. All the data retained in Google Vault is easily searchable, making it quick and easy to work through your archives. In addition to email, Google Vault can retain your Google Drive, Groups, Chat, Meet, Sites, Voice and Calendar data, ensuring every communications channel is archived and discoverable.

How does Google Vault assist with compliance?

Google Vault has been designed specifically to assist with strict compliance frameworks. Every email your employees send or receive and every file your employees create or save is automatically indexed and audited in Vault. This audit trail is then updated every time the data is accessed. You have a complete record of who did what with the data. This is exactly the information your auditors or legal representation will seek. 

Making things easier for you

Google Vault uses intelligent rules to simplify the archiving process. From retaining the data in your team members’ mailboxes and Google Drive to defining how long the archived data is kept, Vault uses automation to make your job easier. By applying retention rules, you can also automatically delete information that no longer needs to be held – for compliance reasons or when it ceases to be of any value.

The ability to archive data and record how it is used should interest any business, not just those bound by complex compliance rules. Data is your most valuable asset, so it should be protected as such. If your business currently has zero or limited data archiving, you must check that you are meeting the data retention requirements of your industry and local laws. You should also consider that if legal action were taken towards your business, you would be confident that you could find all the data related to the legal request in a cost and time-efficient manner. If you’re not confident you could do this, your legal cost may go through the roof; book a video call below to find out how easily we can deploy Google Vault.