ZL Technologies

Background

ZL Technologies was originally established as ZipLip in 1999, a secure mail carrier that provided tracking, security, and authentication services. Its first customers were telecommunications firms, large organizations that required a robust architecture in order to govern their hundreds of thousands of email inboxes. In 2000, ZipLip's secure email and data tracking capabilities expanded to provide secure file share and collaboration tools for enterprise users, and in 2001 the telecom market experienced a bubble, forcing ZipLip to shift its focus to large enterprise customers. Additionally in the early 2000s, the regulatory and legal landscape underwent major changes—such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act—and in response ZipLip expanded its focus to the newly-invigorated requirements for regulatory compliance, accommodating the ingestion, archiving, and long-term governance of business communications. In 2006 the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP) were amended to include electronically stored content (ESI) as a type of discoverable content, and ZipLip expanded its product to include eDiscovery functionalities to accommodate the new regulation.

In 2007, the company changed its name from ZipLip to ZL Technologies. In 2008 ZL Technologies added records management functionality in response to a growing focus by companies on file management. The additions allowed ZL Technologies to build a business model that encompasses both archiving and data management needs of large enterprises such as those in the Fortune 500. By 2012, ZL Technologies incorporated feature updates in the eDiscovery module and added advanced SharePoint, Documentum, and file share analysis features.

In 2015, ZL technologies native analytics functionality into its Unified Archive® to provide customers with the ability to leverage all of their unstructured data in order to gain valuable business insights.

Products

ZL Technologies' Unified Archive® is built around the idea of "one data, one copy, one policy, one view." Although ZL offers 5 separate modules for records, eDiscovery, compliance, and file analysis, all of these functionalities are supported by a single data schema and unified architecture. According to the company, this results in only one copy of the document being stored (no duplicates), a single retention policy, and consistent, fast search results.

Discovery Manager

ZL Discovery Manager is a module part of the ZL Unified Archive® that allows companies to bring their eDiscovery process in-house, saving on both document review time and legal outsourcing costs. The greatest advantage of having the ZLDM is its versatility in allowing users to identify, preserve, search, cull, review, and create data under one singular, unified platform. This versatility allows each enterprise with ZLDM to tailor its functionalities to suit the company's regular eDiscovery needs. Additionally, ZLDM also sets the enterprise on track for proactive eDiscovery, allowing data governance on a day-today basis rather than on a need-basis.

Compliance Manager

As part of the ZL Unified Archive®, Compliance Manager ensures that companies are able to fulfill legal regulatory requirements whiel improving internal data governance policies. Compliance Manager provides users with advanced control and supervision over their stored data to help comply with federal regulations such as SEC 17a-4, HIPAA, and FERC 717 with a single solution.

Records Manager

ZL Records Manager allows records managers to apply category-level and records-level retention policies across all records in the organization, ultimately allowing defensible disposition without fear of spoliation risks. The module also utilizes a hybrid classification system that automatically classifies files into appropriate categories but also grants records manager the granular control to manually override automated rules.

Storage Manager

Whether the purpose is to eliminate mailbox quota restrictions, improve end-user access, or reduce operational IT expenditure, ZL Unified Archive® provides flexible and scalable solution that addresses the diverse needs sought by the Fortune 500 enterprises. One a higher level, managers can also control and restrict employees' access to classified and privileged information by customizing policies and roles, included in ZL Storage Manager, single-instance storage technology ensure that there is only one single data copy—thus saving the company massive storage costs and space.

File Analysis and Management

ZL File Analysis and Management (ZL FAM) gives companies the ability to regain control of their data through file cleanup and reporting, file remediation, and ongoing file governance. ZL FAM grants users a seamless transition from content insight inside their file shares to proactive file governance within the same system. This allows the company to treat file governance as a long-term solution rather than a one-off project.

Customers & Partnerships

ZL Technologies currently has strategic and technological partnerships with many software and storage companies including Oracle, EMC, IBM, Microsoft, Novell, NetApp, HP, Hitachi, Akonix, Viewpointe, Iron Mountain, and Sun Microsystems.

Analyst Standing

Gartner: ZL Technologies is seen as a “Leader” within the enterprise information archiving space, Gartner, Inc. 2014.

Forrester: Named Strong Performer in Message Archiving Software space, Forrester 2011. In a recent interview Brian Hill, a Lead Analyst at Forrester Research, discussed how ZL’s holistic approach to archiving has made it a very good fit for large enterprises.

Controversy

On May 29, 2009 ZL Technologies filed a lawsuit against IT analyst firm Gartner, Inc. alleging defamation, trade libel, false advertising, unfair competition, and negligent interference with prospective economic advantage. On August 19, 2009 Gartner Group filed a motion to dismiss the case. In a November 5 judgment, the court dismissed all claims except defamation and trade libel, and gave ZL 30 days to file an amended complaint.