What is Enterprise Information Archiving Software?

Enterprise information archiving (EIA) software is primarily used to store structured and unstructured data of a business. Traditionally, companies primarily focused on storing structured data since it was easier to handle and integrate with various workflows and improved overall data management capabilities. This data would be stored on-premises. However, with the rise of unstructured data, it became increasingly difficult to store huge amounts of data without the right storage environment. This is where EIA steps in. EIA solutions ensure that companies have an option to store their unstructured data, along with other key features along with storage such as data retrieval and data archiving. The data can be stored in the public cloud, private cloud, or even hybrid cloud environments. Data is stored across multiple data centers owned by the likes of AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud among several others. The internet boom along with the smartphone generation created a large amount of unstructured data in the form of short message service (SMS), video, chats, social media, and numerous other sources. These forms did not have any particular schema which made it very difficult to store such data files. Enterprises now had a large amount of unstructured data in the form of different content types such as files, website content, call recordings, file sharing, email retention but no proper way to store it. It is important to note that enterprise information archiving deals with the storage of historical, original, real-time data of a company. When original data is replicated and stored, it is called a data backup. When people view storage, they usually picture servers and storage boxes hidden away in the back of an enterprise—not anymore. With the advent of cloud storage, companies can now store their data off-premises and in the cloud (public, private, or hybrid). What this translates for firms is that there is now a single place to store and save emails, files, instant messaging chats, and content types and ensure a smooth and simplified management process. What this means for customers is that their data is always available, safe, and ready to use as and when required. Data protection is one of the key focuses for EIA solutions. As the amount of data keeps increasing, every enterprise needs to focus on strict regulatory compliance. Enterprise information archiving software helps firms to manage their information more easily, and ensure that all compliance standards are being met. EIA solutions also focus on retention management, to ensure against data loss issues, security breaches, and data corruption.

What are the Common Features of Enterprise Information Archiving Software?

The following are some core features within enterprise information archiving solutions that can help users in archiving data securely: Archiving: Archiving is the most important and needed feature that this software provides. As companies expand their footprint across the globe, there is a growing need to have archive storage solutions for these enterprises that will ensure data safety. By using EIA software, companies have a single solution to manage archiving user communications, IMs, emails, videos, content, SMS, and several other data types. In addition, the software ensures emails of employees/externals are compliant. Email retention forms the core for several businesses as well. Performance and accessibility: Users need access to their content. Ideally this data/content type needs to be found quickly without any possible lags. EIA software ensures that unstructured and structured data is not just continually stored, but can also be retrieved as per the user requirements. This helps increase performance efficiency, user satisfaction, and ensures that teams have access to quick, clean, and original real-time data. Especially when the users can cross tens of thousands of employees, the EIA software must ensure top-notch performance. Electronic discovery: Also known as eDiscovery, this feature of EIA products focuses on delivering content on request. Content is requested across different teams such as legal firms, financial audit teams, and others. eDiscovery focuses on identifying, gathering, and presenting electronically stored information (such as enterprise information and archive storage) for legal proceedings. eDiscovery cannot be taken lightly and is one of the main reasons for the birth of enterprise information archive storage. It has significant ramifications as to how enterprises store and organize their data. For any enterprise, there will be litigation matters, lawsuits, or types of legal action where eDiscovery will play a major role. eDiscovery has a huge impact on content archival, content searching, storage system management, and even risk management. Data retention: Another key benefit of EIA products is data retention. A data retention policy is defined as the policy that controls how the data is being saved for regulatory purposes. Companies can have simple or complex data retention policies because these policies would clarify how data is stored. Other information such as what data can be stored, or formatted, or even what kind of system holds this data is provided with data retention. EIA software has the feature of data retention since it works so closely with data. Automation: Some enterprise archive solutions have built-in automation features to increase productivity and efficiency. Tasks such as setting timelines after which data needs to be archived, sending into the correct location, the need to create replicas, and several other features can be automated. Bringing in the element of automation into EIA software will help reduce any user errors and ensure all the data is compliant.

What are the Benefits of Enterprise Information Archiving Software?

Compliance with civil procedures and litigations: With data being available over numerous geographies, the law of the land will apply to several enterprises that wish to do business there. It gets extremely difficult to manage large amounts of data spread across different geographies that have different data retention laws, and this is where EIA solutions come in. EIA solutions ensure that consumer data is stored safely and securely and can only be accessed as per the users defined. It ensures that the laws are being followed and therefore the company can continue operations knowing their archived data is safe, secure, and compliant. Increased operational efficiency: One of the key benefits of the software is that it increases operational efficiency across the entire organization. Having message and content compliance makes it easier for eDiscovery, data retention, regulatory compliance, and other statutory processes. Since all the original, real-time data is archived and can be retrieved via the software, it focuses on improving efficiency significantly. Users can have a single point source where they will be able to access their content and data that is archived. In addition, the software also ensures user access—which means making sure the original, historical data does not fall into the wrong hands. Better data control: EIA software has the added benefit of policy controls. What this means is that the user of the software can ideally control which messages need to be live, which messages need to be archived, and for how long they need to be archived before automatic deletion. Relevance classification: Storing data in the cloud does not mean dumping all data into a “cold storage” and forgetting about it. Rather, some EIA software have additional benefits such as message relevance classification. The benefit of relevance classification is that it allows users to archive their data as per their preference and relevance, and therefore these are extremely helpful in litigation matters, management requests, case analysis, and several other situations that might arise.

Best Enterprise Information Archiving Software: User Reviews from October 2026

Smarsh Professional Archive

Smarsh Professional Archive is an AI-powered communications compliance and data intelligence platform built for small and mid-sized financial firms, government agencies, and other regulated organizations. It captures, retains, and manages communications across today's digital channels, with continuous support for emerging communication platforms and enterprise AI applications. Professional Archive helps organizations: • Capture communications everywhere. Archive email, text messaging, collaboration platforms, social media, and enterprise AI applications such as ChatGPT Enterprise, Microsoft Copilot, and Anthropic Claude. • Reduce review noise. Optional AI-powered Intelligent Supervision capabilities help uncover risk sooner, accelerate investigations, and keep compliance teams focused on the communications that matter most. • Respond faster. Powerful search, legal hold, and included data exports simplify investigations, audits, e-discovery, and public records requests. • Integrate with confidence. Robust integrations, flexible retention policies, and secure cloud archiving fit seamlessly into your existing technology ecosystem. For small and mid-sized financial firms, Professional Archive helps lean compliance teams meet strict regulatory requirements more efficiently. Organizations using Smarsh AI have reduced false positives by 60%+, saved 40+ hours per reviewer each month, increased review capacity by 20%, and identified 3–5x more risk. For government agencies, Professional Archive simplifies records management with a complete, defensible archive of digital communications. Powerful search and included data exports help agencies quickly find, review, and produce records—without unexpected export fees. Backed by more than 20 years of communications compliance expertise, Smarsh is recognized as a Leader in the Gartner® Magic QuadrantTM for Digital Communications Governance and Archiving Solutions. Customers also benefit from award-winning support, training, and professional and managed services that help maximize adoption and long-term success.

Average Rating: 4.0/5.0

Total Reviews: 19

How Do G2 Users Rate Smarsh Professional Archive?

Has the product been a good partner in doing business?: 7.7/10 (Category avg: 8.7/10)
Quality of Support: 7.1/10 (Category avg: 8.7/10)
Ease of Admin: 7.0/10 (Category avg: 8.6/10)

Who Is the Company Behind Smarsh Professional Archive?

Seller: Smarsh
Company Website:
Year Founded: 2001
HQ Location: Portland, OR
Twitter: @SmarshInc
5,683 Twitter followers
LinkedIn® Page: www.linkedin.com
1,624 employees on LinkedIn®

Who Uses This Product?

Company Size: 74% Small, 16% Medium

What Are Recent G2 Reviews of Smarsh Professional Archive?

"Fast, Efficient Compliance Support with Strong Data Privacy Ethics"

Rating: 4.0/5.0 stars

— RAHUL K.

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