When it comes to Google Vault, people tend to misunderstand the concept. The idea behind Google Vault is that it is a service allowing users to store and retain their data while searching and exporting it at the same time.
However, people assume that it is basically a restoring service that backs up all your data. Therefore, in simple words, Google Vault is an archiving service rather than backing up. Let us review the service in detail and see what it has to offer.
What is the use of Google Vault?
Google Vault could be used for several things, which are its significant features at the same time.
Exporting Data
As already mentioned, Google Vault allows its users to export data, once it has been archived for further use and processing. You can share the data with your friends, family members and colleagues at the same time.
Archiving
The most significant feature is archiving. Archiving provides the administrators with the power to put a time limit on the retention of data, which otherwise is deleted from Google related drives and accounts.
Legal Holds
Google Vault allows the administrators to hold individual users so that their data could be retained for legal purposes as long as they desire. This is a unique feature in itself that keeps the legal data protected and secure as well.
How to use Google Vault?
Archiving
In order to use Google Vault, the first thing you need to do is set up your retention policies. The retention policies are solely related to the retention of data, defining who can use your data and for how long. Furthermore, if you are setting up Google Vault for your organization, you could set up custom retention policies that are based on terms, date ranges and units of the organization. As soon as the policies are created, the effect shall begin. While you are setting up Google Vault, be aware of the policies you are making so that you do not end up deleting the wrong files. It may take a while but will be worth it in the long run.
Searching Data
Since a vault is supposed to hold a large amount of data, Google Vault serves the purpose perfectly. It offers a wide range of searching parameters to allow the user to search exactly what he/she desires. Otherwise, if you were to search broadly, the results would be several and if specifically, the results would be too few, therefore, it is bound to be a daunting task. You could use file type, file name and file content to end up with your desired results and once you are done with it, you could save the search queries as well so that you are able to access the data quickly the next time you go searching for data.
Holds
Holds is a useful feature when there is an ongoing investigation or legal issues for retaining data to protect it for an indefinite period of time. As it is well-known that legal issues and investigations take a lot of time to reach a conclusion, therefore, a service such as Google Vault will retain the data for as long as it requires. While creating holds, you need to be careful as it should not override retention rules. For instance, if you have set up a rule that deletes the data after several days, by creating a hold, you will be retaining the data for the required period until the hold is lifted or removed.
How to set up Google Vault?
Step 1:
To set up Google Vault, you will first need to set up a G-Suite account.
Begin, by providing a name to your organization and selecting the number of employees. If it is only you, who will be using Google Vault, then select ‘Just You’. Then, click ‘Next’.
Step 2:
For the second step, you will need to provide your contact information that includes your name and email address. Click ‘Next’ to proceed.
Step 3:
If you already possess a domain or would like to purchase one for your organization, select the relevant options. Moreover, if you wish to have a domain free page for a year, select the bottom-most option as shown in the screenshot.
Step 4:
For this step, you will need to provide a domain name. Insert a name and click the ‘search’ option to review domain names available.
Step 5:
In the next step, you will need to provide details of your business and then proceed with selecting a username and password to log-in to your G Suite account.
Step 6:
G-Suite allows its users a free 30-day trial of Google Vault if they have already purchased G-Suite online.
To do this,
- Log-In to G-Suite using the administrator account, not your regular email account.
- Visit the ‘Apps’ section and select ‘G Suite’.
- Click ‘Add services’ located top-right.
- Locate ‘Google Vault’ and click ‘Add it now’
- Follow the instructions to set up a vault for your organization.