Email is the lifeblood of business—contracts, decisions, customer conversations, financial records, and legal documentation all live in inboxes. And yet, many organisations rely on basic, restrictive archiving solutions, assuming they’re enough.
The reality? Many built-in and legacy archiving solutions weren’t designed for the way businesses work today. Slow searches, limited access during outages, and compliance gaps leave IT teams frustrated and businesses at risk.
If switching to a smarter archive feels like a headache, the bigger risk is sticking with a system that’s already holding you back.
The limitations of Exchange Online Archiving
Many organisations assume that turning on archiving in Microsoft 365 is enough. But Exchange Online Archiving (EOA) is not a compliance-grade solution—even Microsoft recommends third-party archiving for long-term data protection and regulatory adherence.
Here’s why relying on EOA alone could be riskier than you think:
- Limited eDiscovery & search functionality → Only two eDiscovery searches can run at once, and large searches must be exported before results can be fully viewed. For compliance teams under pressure, this makes audits slow and frustrating.
- No email access during Microsoft 365 outages → If Microsoft goes down, archived emails become inaccessible. There’s no way to search, retrieve, or restore critical messages when you need them most.
- Tamper-evidence & auditability issues → Without Litigation Hold enabled across every mailbox, Exchange cannot prove which email is the original or even confirm whether an email was ever sent or received.
- Leaver retention issues → Microsoft 365 requires an active subscription to retain archived emails. If an employee leaves and their license is removed, so is their archived data.
For regulated industries, legal teams, and businesses that rely on fast, reliable access to email history, these limitations aren’t just annoying—they’re potentially damaging.
Why even third-party archives can be problematic
Many businesses turn to third-party archiving when they realise Microsoft’s solution isn’t enough. But some popular alternatives come with their own hidden costs, complex licensing, and migration barriers.
Common pitfalls to watch out for
🚧 Rigid pricing & licensing → Some providers offer cut-down versions of their archive at a lower price, only to lock core functionality behind expensive enterprise plans.
🚧 Slow & complex search tools → Some archiving solutions force users through multiple steps and screens just to run a search. IT teams often spend hours retrieving emails that should take seconds.
🚧 High data exit fees → Some vendors charge thousands per terabyte to export your archived data at the end of your contract, making migration difficult.
🚧 Poor support & lengthy implementations → Some solutions have fragmented product lines and inconsistent support teams, leading to slow onboarding and frustrating resolution times.
Why Censornet makes email archiving effortless
Censornet takes a smarter, simpler approach to archiving.
✅ Blazing-fast search – Find emails in seconds with real-time search previews, even across large volumes of archived messages.
✅ Always-on access – Retrieve archived emails even when Microsoft 365 or Gmail goes down.
✅ Tamper-proof, compliance-ready storage – Regulatory-grade encryption and full audit trails, without the complexity.
✅ No hidden export fees – Your data belongs to you. If you ever need to migrate, we won’t lock you in with costly exit charges.
✅ Expert UK-based support – We don’t disappear after deployment. Our support team is with you for the long haul.
Change doesn’t have to be painful
We get it—moving to a new archiving solution sounds like a hassle. But the cost of doing nothing is often higher. A slow, restrictive archive leads to missed compliance deadlines, legal risks, and wasted hours spent searching for lost emails.
With Censornet, switching isn’t complex—it’s effortless. Smart archiving. No gaps. No headaches. No stress.
