Vaultastic Tiered Storage Architecture

Architecture Overview

Vaultastic is a cloud-based archival and governance platform for storing, searching, and managing organizational data over time.

It ingests data from multiple sources, including:

• Email systems
• Collaboration platforms
• Cloud drives
• File servers
• Object storage
• Business applications

Vaultastic organizes archived data into four storage tiers:

• Live Store – for collaboration and review
• Active Store – for high-speed search on communication data
• Open Store – for file-based archival with immediate access
• Deep Store – for long-term, low-cost retention

This tiered architecture allows administrators to align storage with:

• Access frequency
• Collaboration needs
• Data type
• Retention requirements
• Cost considerations

Each tier is optimized for a specific use case, enabling predictable performance and cost control.

Vaultastic Storage Tiers

Live Store

Purpose

The Live Store is the collaboration layer on top of archived data.

It allows teams to review, annotate, and organize archived information within structured workspaces.

The Live Store is powered by Ideolve.

Data Model

Data is organized as:

• Notes – Primary unit of archived content (email, file, or extracted data)
• Workspaces – Containers that group notes by use case, team, or system

Each note can include:

• Rich text content
• Attachments
• Comments
• Tags
• Mentions

Key Capabilities

• Real-time archival from application systems
• Full-text search across notes and attachments
• Tag-based organization
• Author-based filtering
• Workspace-level access control
• Collaboration through comments and notifications

Typical Use Cases

Live Store is commonly used for:

• Helpdesk ticket archiving

• CRM activity preservation

• Website form submission archives

• Collaborative review of archived communications

When to Use

Use Live Store when:

• Teams need to review or annotate archived data
• Data requires tagging, classification, or investigation
• Collaboration across users or teams is required

Archived data from Active Store, Open Store, or Deep Store can also be copied into the Live Store for collaborative analysis.

Active Store

Purpose

The Active Store is designed for high-volume, high-speed indexing and search of communication (email and chat) data.

It enables rapid retrieval for supervision, investigation, and compliance use cases.

Data Model

• Primary unit: Email messages and chat transcripts
• Attachments are stored and indexed along with messages
• Data is organized into vaults (typically mapped to user mailboxes)
• Domain-level separation is enforced

Key Capabilities

• Live email archiving via journaling, BCC, or forwarding
• Full email attribute search, including:
  • Sender
  • Recipients
  • Date
  • Keywords
  • Message identifiers
• eDiscovery interface for investigation workflows
• Export to PST or EML
• Forwarding or replying to archived messages
• Activation of messages into Live Store for collaboration

Typical Use Cases

Active Store is used for:

• Real-time mail archiving

• Regulatory supervision of communications

• Searching historical email archives

• Mailbox backup with searchable indexing

When to Use

Use Active Store when:

• Fast search across large communication datasets is required
• Email or chat is the primary data source
• Regulatory or compliance supervision is needed

Open Store

Purpose

The Open Store provides cost-efficient storage for files that must remain immediately accessible but are not frequently accessed.

It is optimized for file-based archival and retrieval.

Data Model

• Primary unit: Files
• Supports both compressed and uncompressed formats
• Organized in folder structures
• Domain-level separation applies

Key Capabilities

• Search by file name (metadata-based search)
• Folder-based browsing
• Immediate file download
• S3-compatible access
• Lifecycle-based ingestion from Active Store

Typical Use Cases

• Archiving of cloud drive data (e.g., OneDrive, Google Drive)
• Preservation of exported email archives
• File server backup
• Archiving of FTP or application-generated data
• Reducing Active Store storage through lifecycle movement

When to Use

Use Open Store when:

• Storing large volumes of files
• Immediate access is required
• Search requirements are simple
• Storage cost needs to be optimized

Deep Store

Purpose

The Deep Store is used for long-term retention of data that is rarely accessed but must be preserved.

It is the lowest-cost storage tier in Vaultastic.

Key Characteristics

• Data stored in deep archive state
• Not immediately accessible
• Restoration required before access
• Typical restore time: 24–48 hours

After restoration:

• Files remain accessible for approximately 7 days
• Standard file operations can be performed

Typical Use Cases

Deep Store is typically used for:

• Long-term regulatory retention

• Historical data preservation

• Legacy backups

• Archival datasets with low access frequency

When to Use

Use Deep Store when:

• Data must be retained for long durations
• Access is infrequent
• Storage cost minimization is critical

[NEW]Data Lifecycle and Movement

Data in Vaultastic can move between storage tiers based on lifecycle policies.

Typical Lifecycle Flow

Active Store → Open Store
Active Store → Deep Store
Open Store  → Deep Store

Movement Triggers

• Data age
• Access frequency
• Retention policies

Lifecycle Management

Administrators can configure lifecycle rules to:

• Automatically move data between tiers
• Optimize storage cost
• Enforce retention requirements

Store Comparison

Store Access Methods

Each Vaultastic store is accessed through a dedicated application.

Quick Selection Guide

• Need collaboration → Live Store
• Need fast search on email/chat → Active Store
• Need file archival with instant access → Open Store
• Need lowest-cost long-term storage → Deep Store

Access Control

Access is managed through:

• Role-based access control (RBAC)
• Application-level permissions
• API or S3 credentials (for Open and Deep Store)

Access Types

• UI Access → Vaultastic applications
• Programmatic Access → S3-compatible tools and APIs

Retrieval Characteristics

Operational Considerations

• Deep Store retrieval requires advanced planning
• Open Store supports operational restores
• Active Store supports real-time investigation workflows

Security and Data Isolation

Vaultastic enforces a consistent security model across all storage tiers:

• Logical data separation at the domain level
• Role-based access control (RBAC)
• Encryption in transit and at rest
• Audit logging for all access and actions

Retention Management

Vaultastic supports retention policies across storage tiers:

• Retention rules can be applied per dataset or store
• Data can be preserved for compliance requirements
• Deletion is enforced after retention expiry

Performance Characteristics

• Live Store → Optimized for collaboration and interaction
• Active Store → Optimized for high-speed search
• Open Store → Optimized for storage and immediate retrieval
• Deep Store → Optimized for cost, not access speed

Summary

Vaultastic’s tiered storage architecture separates data based on access patterns, data type, and retention requirements.

This allows administrators to:

• Place data in the appropriate storage tier
• Balance performance and cost
• Meet compliance and retention needs

By using lifecycle policies and tiered storage, organizations can maintain efficient, scalable, and governed archival systems.