Models and Sizing
Determining how to size your DataCove
There are a handful of different factors that will help you size the appropriate system for your organization, clarified below. DataCove models are priced on their size, with the variables of user count, retention policy and initial data import being the primary determining factors on which is the best fit for any given scenario. Try the handy dandy calculator for a quick idea of what to expect, and read further below for additional details on how this is all tabulated and other more minute variables.
How many users do you have?
All active users should all be counted, with inactive users left outside of this equation (they may be added later in the Data Import section).
Once the active user total has been found, compare them against the approximated user-count per system above to find where your users land in terms of DataCove model sizing.
As an example, 900 active users would likely be too tight a fit on a DataCove T2 which is designed for up to 750 users, but it’s a pretty safe bet that they’ll all fit just fine with the most common retention needs of most organizations, on a DataCove T4, which is accommodating of up to 1250 users on average.
The more users that are present, the more email/chat traffic is generated and consequently, the more capacity is taken up over time.
For higher accuracy gauging of users, approximate how many “Low Potency” users are present. Low Potency users can be categorized in a few different ways depending on the organization, but common ones include students, part time employees, interns, kiosk workers, warehouse logisticians, truckers/transporters and other users who do not often need to send email. Low Potency users can be safely counted as approximately half of that of an Active User when determining total number of users for archival.
What type of organization is this?
The vast majority of organizations can use the suggestions above and below on sizing a system, but special mention goes out to a handful of organizational types who tend to break the mold, as it were.
Financial institutions (banks, real estate firms, brokerages, etc), law offices and other legal service providers and engineering/construction companies tend to be particularly heavy on attachments due to all the forms, blueprints and other documents they deal with daily. If you are one of these or know your users deal with a lot of large attachments, sizing your system up a model or two is almost always a smart idea.
What does the future look like for growth?
As a very general rule that applies to essentially all organizations, plan for year-over-year growth in terms of electronic communications. On average, email and chat traffic grow about 7%-14% per year, compounding with each year’s new traffic.
A nearly ubiquitous image of traffic growth showing this consistent trend over time is pictured adjacent; note how from 2013 to 2020 the traffic increased by 100%. While this growth rate is a little on the higher side, it shows the upward pressure in electronic communications seen at all organizations as more and more employees communicate digitally, with an obvious increase from remote workers.
Outside of general growth, are there plans for new acquisitions in the future, or is there a general upswing in hiring? Or are things fairly static and not many changes of any significance take place?
If there is the potential for any user growth over approximately 50-150 users worth (a fairly safe growth quantity for most organizations over the expected life of a system), it is advisable to discuss this with your sales representative to determine if a larger size system is needed and over what timeframe it may be necessary.
Is there any initial data you'd like to import?
One of the biggest factors that goes unconsidered is the desire to import historical data from the existing mail system, user stored archives (.PST files and the like), or data from an existing email archiver that is being succeeded by DataCove.
Since the nature of storage and compression of this data varies widely, the amount of data to be imported from these sources should be counted as 100% of their existing value. So, that 500GB of data to import from Exchange should be seen as consuming 500GB of space from your DataCove right off the bat. DataCove will offer significant deduplication benefits, but given the variability of different data types and how well they compress, it’s best not to bank on that during initial sizing, especially if the data comes from an already-deduplicating system like Exchange.
DataCove possesses several ways to import data, including an Exchange Crawler, which crawls user mailboxes for data and uploads it to DataCove automatically (compatible with versions of Exchange 2003 to 2022, including Office 365), .PST files from Outlook clients or Exchange and.EML files from iMail, Kerio and other generic storage mail systems.
Deduct the amount of initial data to be imported from the total storage capacity of DataCove to rule out models that may be too small, separate of total user count. Even 250 users can generate a great deal of email over time, and if 5 years of that pre-existing data is being imported, it’ll use up enough space to where smaller machines may not make the most sense.
What are the organization’s document retention schedules or policies?
Document retention schedules dictate how long an organization must hold onto physical and electronic documents, such as emails and chats, for regulatory purposes. These schedules boil down into a “retention policy” on the DataCove, which will automatically delete emails that “age out” past those retention schedules so as not to hold data longer than necessary and introduce undesired liability. These schedules can come from a variety of sources, be they federal agencies, state governments or even local, in-house policies and can easily range from holding emails from 1-3 years all the way up to holding emails forever.
If a retention policy has been designed for your organization or you are familiar with the regulations that need to be adhered to, use that policy to determine how long email must be held for, and add approximately 10-15% more space on top to handle any emails that need to be held for e-Discovery purposes, as that can skew capacity numbers.
If a policy has not been decided on, this becomes a bit more fluid, and we'd recommend consulting with your legal team or state government for pointers on how to select a policy right for you. Tangent can also help with figuring out a 'safe bet' policy if this is still up in the air. Please see our Retention Policy guide for some starting advisories that encompass all states and a few industry specific legislative considerations to get you started.
The retention policy chosen will determine how rapidly emails are removed from the DataCove, clearing space for ingestion of new data. Shorter policies could allow for smaller units, while longer policies may necessitate larger units.
Due to the complexities of all of these sizing parameters, it's often a good idea to consult with a DataCove technician or sales representative. Give us a ring and we'll talk you through all the different variables that might affect you.