Short answer
Email archives in FirstNet's managed Mimecast service are encrypted, and access is controlled by roles and audit trails, so only authorised people can search or export archived mail and their activity is recorded.
In detail
Archiving is an optional capability, added where you contract it:
- Retention periods of 30 days, 1 year, 7 years or 99 years
- Every inbound and outbound message captured under enforced retention, indexed for eDiscovery and legal hold
- FirstNet helps configure retention, guides legal hold and search or export workflows, and supports day-to-day use
- The Complete tier includes a 99-year archive option for regulated or high-risk organisations
Your organisation remains the owner of the archived data and makes the final decisions on retention and governance, while FirstNet operates the Mimecast layer and advises. Mimecast supports South African data residency preferences, and specific contractual residency wording is reviewed by FirstNet's product and legal teams.
An archive is not a backup. It preserves messages for compliance and investigations, while a backup restores lost mailboxes, so many regulated organisations need both.
Large legacy archive migrations are scoped as a separate project after a technical workshop.
Source: FirstNet Email Security & Threat Protection service page →
Didn’t answer your question?