Firms will increasingly use grid computing technologies to support archiving applications, so they can search and retrieve data far quicker and comply with the demands of regulators, according to Mark Donkersley, UK managing director of records management specialist AXS-One.

Donkersley predicted that high-performance computing grids will increasingly be required to provide the computing power needed for firms to search single repository archives that hold emails, files, presentations and other forms of content.

AXS-One's Rapid-AXS data search and retrieval product has been built based on grid technology and Donkersley is said this model will spread as firms try to cope with larger archiving repositories and growing regulations and legal requests for electronically stored emails and other data.

"We used to find that we could archive files but searching them was too laborious and we would get time-outs running complex searches," said Donkersley. "By using grid computing power we can run complex searches, asking for specific emails from an archive holding millions of different records, for example, and get answers back in 30 seconds."

Firms that deploy data retrieval software alongside archiving systems may see a significant return on investment, according to Donkersley. "We had one customer that found the software paid for itself almost immediately because they were able to retrieve files required to defend themselves against litigation," he said. "Before deploying the software they would have settled out of court because they simply wouldn't be able to find the files needed to defend themselves."

Donkersley added that use of such archiving and data retrieval systems could lead to lower auditing fees for many firms. "A phenomenal amount of work goes into getting auditors the information they need, but if you have records management systems you can plug the auditor’s laptop into the system and they can find the records they need far quicker," he said. "I'm not sure auditors will relish the new technology but you should see audit fees come down as a result."