Startup Of The Week: The Art Of E-Mail ArchivingStartup Of The Week: The Art Of E-Mail Archiving

The job of managing gigabytes of e-mail has gotten tougher with regulations such as the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, which raise the bar on IT governance. Mimosa Systems' software archives Exchange messages with options for electronic discovery and recovery. New customers include Affiliated Computer Services and Gordon Biersch Brewing. --John Foley MIMOSA SYSTEMS HEADQUARTERS: Santa Clara, Calif.

PRODUCT: Mimosa NearPoint for Microsoft Exchange Server

PRINCIPALS: T.M. Ravi, co-founder, president, and CEO

INVESTORS: August Capital, Clearstone Venture Partners, Dot Edu Ventures, JAFCO Ventures, Mayfield Fund

EARLY CUSTOMERS: Adomo, Brookfield Homes, Siegfried Group, Palm Beach County (Florida)

THE REQUIREMENT Employees and managers sometimes need access to months-old correspondence, and, for legal matters, lawyers do, too. Regulatory requirements and increased attention to electronic record-keeping are forcing IT departments to get their e-mail archives in order. "Companies realize it's good business practice and legally prudent," says CEO Ravi. MICROSOFT-CENTRIC NearPoint runs on Windows Server and is designed for Exchange environments. NearPoint 3.0, released in June, uses roles defined in Active Directory and provides a version history of Active Directory, including distribution lists as they appeared when e-mail was sent or received. NearPoint 3.0 supports Live Communication Server instant messages. A Self-Service Access feature lets users and auditors access messages that have been archived from Outlook or Outlook Web Access. QUEUED UP For the past four years, Mimosa has been focused on e-mail archiving, e-discovery, storage management, and recovery. Early next year, the company will expand into file and document archiving. BRAIN TRUST Ravi previously founded Media Blitz, a Windows storage specialist that was bought by Cheyenne Software, subsequently acquired by CA. From there, he founded and led Peakstone, a VC-backed developer of performance management software for IT infrastructures. Chief architect Sanjay Mehta was formerly VP of software development for data-archiving vendor Zantaz. Recently hired senior VP of engineering Bob Kruger was previously with Mendocino; he also worked 10 years at Microsoft. TIMELINE