E-mail archiving is quickly becoming a must in today's regulatory environment, but there continue to be questions concerning how to access and manage all those archived messages. It's a perplexing challenge for companies both large and small. In a sea of e-storage solutions, Toronto-based Jatheon Technologies Inc.–which was recently named one of Deloitte's top 10 companies to watch in its Technology Fast 50–is gaining traction among banks, law firms and government offices for its appliance-based family of Plug n Comply solutions. The technology is scalable to fit any size organization, and can be set up in a matter of hours or less. It can also be fully integrated into the existing e-mail interface, such as MS Exchange, Novell GroupWise, Bloomberg Mail/IM and Lotus Notes. "Our product is very simple to use and to support," says Jatheon's president Kieron Dowling. "You don't have to buy software. You plug it in and you're capturing mail immediately. It's easy to deploy and set up. There's minimal IT support."

The appliance, which is the size of a cable TV box, automatically stores, indexes and retrieves inbound, outbound and internal e-mail messages, file attachments and IM conversations in real time. It offers lawyers and compliance officers extensive audit capabilities by allowing them to perform keyword searches, as well as check e-mails against improprieties or other rules. It can also handle encrypted e-mail, which corporations are increasingly using.

Jatheon offers four different boxes, depending on the customer's size and storage needs, starting at $4,995. "We spent less than we would have on any other solution and my staff doesn't even realize it's there," says Bill Shaw, management information systems director for the Illinois-based municipality of the Village of Niles, which chose Plug n Comply for its simplicity, reliability and the company's willingness to tailor its solution to its client's needs. Shaw rejected competing solutions that were either too costly or reduced server horsepower. "There was no impact on operations and no impact on my staff," Shaw adds. "It took us 10 minutes to screw it into the rack and two minutes to make it work."