How Zimbra Archiving & Discovery Works

Messages for end-users are automatically copied (forked) to a pre-selected SMTP address using the Zimbra Postfix MTA. Simply put, for users with A&D, a copy each email that goes in or out of the Zimbra system is placed in a separate A&D user account. Even if users go into their mailboxes and delete all their emails the A&D account is not affected.

The real strength is the discovery function. Say your legal department sends a request to recover all emails to/from AL COPONE that include the word TAXES, from 2/1/1937-9/1/1943. The search can be done in seconds and the results are placed into a folder for the persone requesting the search, so the email admin does not see any user data. The process is transparent to the end-user. During the process, the archived message is expanded to include the relevant envelope headers and other recipient address information, which are placed in the archive with the message.