The Email Connector Built for Compliance Archiving
Capture every email, attachment, calendar invite, and metadata record from Microsoft 365, Exchange, Gmail, and any SMTP-based mail system into a WORM-compliant, searchable archive that meets SEC, FINRA, HIPAA, GDPR, and FOIA requirements — without changing how your people communicate.
🌟 Featured in Gartner® Hype Cycle™ for Data Management
Connectors
Data Governance
Enterprise Clients
Talk to a Connector Expert
The Last Email Archiving Problem You'll Solve
Email is the backbone of business communication — and the first place regulators, auditors, and opposing counsel look when reviewing your records. But native mailbox retention is not compliance archiving. Deleted items can be purged, mailboxes can be deprovisioned when employees leave, and platform-native archives lock your data to a single vendor with no independent chain of custody.
Archon’s email connector solves this by capturing all email communications at the point of delivery or send, ingesting them into a governed, tamper-proof archive that exists independently of your mail platform — so your records survive mailbox deletions, platform migrations, and IT policy changes.
- Capture inbound and outbound email from Microsoft 365, Exchange (on-premises), Google Workspace, and any SMTP or IMAP source
- Preserve complete message fidelity: headers, body, all attachments, inline images, and threading metadata
- Apply WORM immutability with SHA-256 cryptographic hashing and trusted timestamps at ingestion
- Enforce automated retention policies by mailbox, domain, content classification, and regulatory schedule
- Archive email alongside Slack, Teams, SMS, and 200+ enterprise data sources in a single governed store
Capabilities
Everything You Need for Email Data Compliance
Complete Capture Across Every Mail Platform
Archon connects to Microsoft 365, on-premises Exchange, and Google Workspace via native APIs. For any other mail system, SMTP journaling and IMAP-based ingestion cover IBM Notes, Zimbra, Postfix, and any standards-compliant server — with no changes to how users send or receive email.
WORM-Compliant Archiving That Satisfies Regulators
Every email is cryptographically hashed at capture and stored in WORM format with a trusted timestamp. This meets SEC Rule 17a-4, FINRA Rule 4511, MiFID II, HIPAA, FERPA, FOIA, GDPR, and SOX. Automated retention enforces applicable schedules; legal holds override deletion immediately.
Cross-Source eDiscovery and Legal Hold
Archon searches across email, Teams, Slack, SMS, SharePoint, and enterprise data in a single query. Custodian holds freeze records across all sources simultaneously, and defensible deletion resumes automatically when a matter closes.
Attachment Processing and Content Intelligence
Archon indexes email body text, metadata, and attachment content — including OCR on images and scanned PDFs. Content classification flags PII, PHI, and financial data automatically, and anomaly detection surfaces unusual sending behavior for compliance review.
Use Cases
How Enterprises Use the Email Connector
01 Financial Services Recordkeeping and Supervision
Captures all business correspondence in WORM-compliant format, meeting SEC Rule 17a-4 and FINRA Rule 4511. Lexicon-based monitoring flags violations for supervisory review under FINRA Rule 3110 with a full audit trail.
02 Healthcare Compliance and PHI Governance
Archives email containing ePHI in a HIPAA-compliant store with AES-256 encryption, RBAC, and immutable audit logs. Content classification identifies PHI in bodies and attachments without manual tagging.
03 Legal Hold and Litigation Readiness
Legal places custodian holds directly from Archon — no IT tickets, no manual mailbox freezes. Holds span email, Teams, Slack, and other sources simultaneously, releasing automatically when the matter closes.
04 Employee Departure and Mailbox Deprovisioning
Email is captured independently of the mailbox, so deprovisioning in Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace has no effect on archived records. Compliance teams retain full access for the duration of the applicable retention schedule.
Technical Specifications
| Specification | Detail |
|---|---|
| Connection Method | Microsoft Graph API, Exchange Web Services (EWS), MAPI (on-premises Exchange), Gmail API, Google Vault Export, SMTP Journaling, IMAP |
| Supported Platforms | Microsoft 365 (Exchange Online), Exchange Server 2013/2016/2019, Google Workspace (Gmail), IBM Notes/Domino, Zimbra, Postfix, Sendmail, any SMTP/IMAP-compliant server |
| Message Types Captured | Inbound email, outbound email, internal email, calendar items, meeting requests, task assignments, contacts, distribution list expansions |
| Content Types | Plain text, HTML, rich text, all attachment formats (Office, PDF, ZIP, image, audio, video), inline images, S/MIME and PGP encrypted messages |
| Capture Mode | Real-time journaling and API-based ingestion |
| Storage Format | Apache Parquet (open, vendor-independent) |
| eDiscovery | Full-text and metadata search; export to PST, EML, MBOX, and standard legal review formats |
| OCR | Optical Character Recognition for image attachments and scanned PDFs |
| Content Classification | PII detection, PHI pattern matching, financial data identification, custom lexicon monitoring |
| Compliance Standards | SEC Rule 17a-4, FINRA Rule 4511, MiFID II, HIPAA, FERPA, FOIA, GDPR, CCPA, SOX, Dodd-Frank, DPDPA |
| Deployment | Cloud, on-premises, or hybrid |
How It Works
Up and Running in 4 Steps
01
Connect to Email
Authorize Archon through your mail platform's admin console — Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, or on-premises Exchange. For other systems, a single SMTP journal rule points to Archon's ingest endpoint. 02
Map & Configure
Define retention policies, monitoring lexicons, and access controls. Archon maps your regulatory requirements to specific mailboxes, domains, and content types — including per-regulation schedules for organizations under multiple compliance regimes. 03
Capture
Archon begins real-time ingestion immediately. For historical data, it retroactively ingests existing mailbox content, PST archives, and platform-native archives with the same WORM immutability as newly captured mail. 04
Archive & Govern
Your archive is searchable, policy-governed, and litigation-ready. Compliance teams search, hold, and export records alongside Teams, Slack, and SMS in a unified interface. IT decommissions mailboxes without risk; legal places holds without filing tickets.FAQ
Common Questions About the Email Connector
- 1. Does Archon support both Microsoft 365 and on-premises Exchange?
Yes. Archon connects to Microsoft 365 via the Microsoft Graph API and to on-premises Exchange via Exchange Web Services (EWS) and MAPI. Both deployment modes are fully supported, and organizations running hybrid Exchange environments — with some mailboxes in the cloud and some on-premises — can archive all mailboxes through a single Archon configuration.
- 2. Can Archon capture encrypted email (S/MIME or PGP)?
Archon captures encrypted email at the message level. For S/MIME messages where your organization controls the private keys through a key escrow or managed key service, Archon can decrypt and index the content at ingestion. For end-to-end encrypted messages where keys are not held by the organization, Archon archives the encrypted message and all available metadata; decryption for review requires key access at the time of production.
- 3. How does Archon handle email sent to and from personal accounts?
Archon's API-based connectors capture email traversing your corporate mail infrastructure — messages routed through your mail server or Exchange Online organization. Personal webmail accounts (Gmail.com, Outlook.com) that employees use outside corporate infrastructure are not captured by the email connector. For regulated industries where off-channel communication is a supervisory concern, Archon's SMS and mobile archiving connectors address personal device communications.
- 4. Can I perform eDiscovery across email and other channels in a single search?
Yes. Archon archives email in the same governed store as Microsoft Teams, Slack, SMS, and 200+ other enterprise data sources. Legal teams run a single search query across all channels and all custodians, with unified legal hold that spans every source. This eliminates the siloed review workflows that arise when email, chat, and mobile communications are archived in separate systems.
- 5. What export formats does Archon support for legal production?
Archon supports export to PST (for Outlook-compatible review), EML and MBOX (for platform-independent review tools), native message format, and EDRM XML for standard legal review platforms including Relativity, Nuix, Concordance, and Everlaw. Custom export configurations are available for specific regulatory production requirements.
Ready to archive your email communications compliantly?
Talk to an Archon connector expert to scope your email archiving requirements and see the connector in action.
