EMC is positioning its SourceOne email archiving solutions as a stepping stone to Exchange 2010.

It says that by taking the large volume of PST files and e-mail from Exchange 2003 and 2007 -- and placing them into SourceOne, inactive messages are archived for long-term preservation and less needs to be moved to Exchange 2010.

SourceOne Email Management is designed to reduce the costs and improve operational efficiency of Exchange 2010 by introducing single-instance storage for messages in the archive, automating the movement of messages to the appropriate storage tier based on the value of the information, and reducing backup and recovery times.

"EMC SourceOne helps companies deal with their most pressing information governance issues – e-discovery, operational efficiency and compliance – in a modular way," said Jeff Bettencourt, Vice President and General Manager of Information Governance Product Group, Content Management and Archiving Division at EMC.

"As one of the leading information governance solutions for Microsoft Exchange 2010, EMC SourceOne lays the groundwork for organizations to build successful, long-term strategies for good e-mail governance."