Mimecast, the UK company that does SaaS e-mail archiving, continuity, security and policy control, has upgraded its flagship Unified Email Management platform to provide the advanced features of on-premise e-mail solutions in its SaaS delivery model.

The new functionality addresses the increasing regulations around data retention and e-discovery. It says its new archiving, mailbox management and data protection features let companies control their inboxes while preventing data leaks.

The company says its new Mimecast Services for Exchange (MSE) plug-in makes it the first vendor to bridge the gap between SaaS e-mail archiving and the sophistication of on-premise solutions. The lightweight software component binds Exchange directly with Mimecast's SaaS environment.

Mimecast has also added litigation hold, e-discovery case management and message retention to its platform.

Litigation hold prevents e-mails that relate to any current or anticipated legal action from being deleted while e-discovery case management aggregates multiple searches together alongside forward collection to provide a complete, legally admissible log of each case. Metadata removal helps prevent information from being leaked by stripping background data such as tracked changes or previously inserted comments out of attachments before it's allowed outside the firewall.

There's also improved user experience. Folder-based replication lets users retain a consistent view of their e-mail whether accessing it direct through the server or through Mimecast webmail. And Flexible Email stubbing lets companies set policies that control mailbox size. It leaves a link in a user's inbox while the full e-mail or attachment stays in the cloud until the user accesses it.

Folder-based retention centrally enforces policies that pinpoint types and categories of information and determine where and for how long the information is maintained. Users can also apply granular corporate policies to retention folders and associated retention periods.

Brian Babineau, a senior analyst with the Enterprise Strategy Group, observed that "According to our research, 80% of electronic discovery events involve e-mails and messaging applications - when compared to other business productivity software - messaging is expected to have the greatest impact on server and storage spending over the next 24 months. The recent additions to Mimecast's portfolio directly address these challenges leading to benefits that are largely only available via on-premise e-mail management offerings."

Founded in 2002 and launched in 2005, Mimecast claims 2,300 customers worldwide. It's found that its purpose-built SaaS platform generally replaces some two-seven on-premise apps. It has multi-tenant logical grids in the US, UK and South Africa.