Enhanced management of migration and archiving operations

• US 9,819,630 B2
• Filed: 04/15/2015
• Issued: 11/14/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 04/15/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Quest Software, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Quest Software, Inc.
• Inventors: Johnstone, Curtis T., Willis, Tomas
• Primary Examiner(s): Tran, Philip B
• Application Number:
  US14/687,732
• Publication Number:
  US 20160308812A1
• Time in Patent Office: 944 Days
• Field of Search: 709206, 709223
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/08 Annexed information, e.g. attachments
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/42 Mailbox-related aspects, e.g. synchronisation of mailboxes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/01 Protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1097 for distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS]

Abstract

A network-based solution that provides enhanced management of migration and archiving operations may involve, as embodied in various systems, methods, and non-transitory computer-readable storage media, performing a pre-transfer assessment on each of a plurality of accessed mailboxes designated for migration or archiving. Performing the pre-transfer assessment may include designating one or more emails for exclusion from the migration or archiving operation after applying transferability rules and exception rules to each email message contained in the assessed mailbox. The solution may involve notifying the user about the email messages designated for exclusion and performing one or more user selected actions on the email message or related attachment files.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for managing migration and archiving operations, the method comprising:

accessing one or more mailboxes from a source email platform to an application server, each mailbox including a plurality of email messages associated with a user; and

executing instructions stored in memory of the application server, wherein execution of the instructions;

performs a pre-transfer assessment on each of the plurality of accessed mailboxes, wherein the pre-transfer assessment includes;

applying one or more transferability rules to each email message contained in the assessed mailbox,

applying one or more exception rules to each email message contained in the assessed mailbox, and

designating one or more email messages of the assessed mailbox for exclusion from a migration or archiving operation based on at least one of;

a result of the application of the one or more transferability rules, and

a result of the application of the one or more exception rules, and

performs the migration or archiving operation on the assessed mailbox, wherein the migration or archiving operation is not performed on the one or more email messages designated for exclusion;

provides the user with one or more selectable actions to be performed on the one or more email messages excluded from the migration or archiving operation;

receives from the user a selection of one of the one or more actions to be performed on the one or more email messages designated for exclusion; and

performs the selected one or more actions on the one or more email messages designated for exclusion.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the user is at least one of a mailbox owner and an administrator.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein accessing the one or more mailboxes from the source email platform includes at least one of:

downloading the one or more mailboxes from the source email platform, and

accessing the one or more mailboxes at the source email platform by employing one or more messaging application programming interfaces (APIs) over the network.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein applying one or more transferability rules to each email message of the assessed mailbox includes determining that an email message of the assessed mailbox includes an attachment file that exceeds a predetermined attachment size limit.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein determining that the email message of the assessed mailbox includes an attachment file that exceeds the predetermined attachment size limit includes:

inspecting the mailbox for an email message containing an attachment file,

determining a file size of a detected attachment file, and

comparing the file size of the detected attachment file to the predetermined attachment size limit.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the predetermined attachment size limit is associated with at least one of:

the source email platform; and

a target email platform communicatively coupled to the source email platform over a network.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein applying a plurality of exception rules to each email message of the assessed mailbox includes determining that an age of an email message of the assessed mailbox exceeds a predetermined age limit defined by a user.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein determining that an age of an email message of the assessed mailbox exceeds a predetermined message age limit defined by a user includes at least one of:

determining an age of the email message and comparing the age of the email message to the predetermined message age limit; and

examining metadata associated with the email message.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein applying one or more exception rules to each email message contained in the assessed mailbox includes determining that an attachment file of an email message contained in the assessed mailbox exceeds a predetermined attachment age limit defined by a user, wherein determining that the age of the attachment file of the email message contained in the assessed mailbox exceeds the predetermined age limit defined by the user includes:

inspecting a mailbox for an email message containing an attachment file,

determining an age of a detected attachment file, and

comparing the age of the detected attachment file to the predetermined attachment age limit.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein determining an age of the detected attachment file includes examining metadata associated with the detected attachment file.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein applying one or more exception rules to each email message of the assessed mailbox includes applying a predetermined retention policy defined by a user.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein applying a predetermined retention policy defined by a user includes at least one of:

comparing a classification associated with the email message to a predetermined classification defined by a user, wherein the classification includes at least one of personal information, business information, and confidential information; and

comparing a file type associated with the email message to a predetermined file type defined by a user.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein designating the one or more email messages for exclusion from the migration or archiving operation includes adding the one or more email messages to an exception list.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein providing the user with one or more selectable actions to be performed on the one or more email messages excluded from the migration or archiving operation includes identifying the one or more email messages by way of a graphical user interface displayed at a computing device associated with the user.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving from the user a selection of one or more actions to be performed on the one or more email messages designated for exclusion includes at least one of:

receiving a selection of a single action to be applied to every email message designated for exclusion; and

receiving an individual selection to be applied for each email message designated for exclusion.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein performing the selected one or more actions on the one or more email messages designated for exclusion includes at least one of:

deleting an email message;

storing an email message on a remote storage device;

decrypting an encrypted email message and then performing the migration or archiving operation on the decrypted email message;

modifying an email message by deleting an attachment file of the email message and then performing the migration or archiving operation on the modified email message; and

modifying an email message by stubbing an attachment file of the email message and then performing the migration or archiving operation on the modified email message.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein performing the selected one or more actions on the one or more email messages designated for exclusion includes:

making an attachment file of the email message available for download until a predetermined expiration time,

modifying the email message by deleting the attachment file when the expiration time arrives, and

performing the migration or archiving operation on the modified email message.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein stubbing the attachment file includes:

uploading a copy of the attachment file to a remote storage device,

removing the attachment file from the email message, and

replacing the attachment file with a link to the copy of the attachment stored at the remote storage device, wherein replacing the attachment file with a link to the copy of the attachment stored at the remote storage device includes generating a visual cue of the attachment and embedding the generated visual cue into the modified email message.

19. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having embodied thereon a computer program executable by a processor to perform a method for automatically processing large email attachments during migration and archiving operations, the method comprising:

accessing one or more mailboxes from a source email platform to an application server, each mailbox including a plurality of email messages associated with a user; and

performing a pre-transfer assessment on each of the plurality of accessed mailboxes, wherein the pre-transfer assessment includes;

applying one or more transferability rules to each email message contained in the assessed mailbox,

applying one or more exception rules to each email message contained in the assessed mailbox, and

designating one or more email messages of the assessed mailbox for exclusion from a migration or archiving operation based on at least one of;

a result of the application of the one or more transferability rules, and

a result of the application of the one or more exception rules, and

performing the migration or archiving operation on the assessed mailbox, wherein the migration or archiving operation is not performed on the one or more email messages designated for exclusion;

providing the user with one or more selectable actions to be performed on the one or more email messages excluded from the migration or archiving operation;

receiving from the user a selection of one of the one or more actions to be performed on the one or more email messages designated for exclusion; and

performing the selected one or more actions on the one or more email messages designated for exclusion.

20. A system for managing migration and archiving operations, the system comprising:

an email platform hosted by a computing device, the email platform storing a plurality of mailboxes, each mailbox including a plurality of emails;

a remote storage device; and

an application server communicatively coupled to the email platform and the remote storage device by a network, the application server having instructions stored in memory, wherein execution of the instructions by a processor of the application server;

accesses one or more of the mailboxes from the email platform;

performs a pre-transfer assessment on each of the accessed mailboxes, wherein the pre-transfer assessments includes;

applying one or more transferability rules to each email message contained in the assessed mailbox,

applying a plurality of exception rules to each email message contained in the assessed mailbox,

designating one or more email messages of the assessed mailbox for exclusion from a migration or archiving operation based on at least one of;

a result of the application of the one or more transferability rules, and

a result of the application of the one or more exception rules; and

performs the migration or archiving operation on the assessed mailbox, wherein the migration or archiving operation is not performed on the one or more email messages designated for exclusion;

provides the user with one or more selectable actions to be performed on the one or more email messages excluded from the migration or archiving operation;

receives from the user a selection of one of the one or more actions to be performed on the one or more email messages designated for exclusion; and

performs the selected one or more actions on the one or more email messages designated for exclusion.