Enterprise evidence repository

摘要

A controller is configured to generate and propagate instructions to an execution agent which, in turn, is configured to collect and deposit collected artifacts into a repository. Write access to a location in the repository for collected artifacts that are to be deposited into a specified location is granted to the execution agent. Once the execution agent deposits the collected artifacts in the specified location in the repository, a summary of collected artifacts is propagated to the controller. The controller manages appropriate levels of access to the collected artifacts, while the repository enforces the level of access. The controller can grant read only access to the collected artifacts or it can allow for controlled changes to be made to the metadata associated with the collected artifact. An agent processes the data and generates additional metadata that can be associated with the collected artifacts and then saved in the repository. A system can have more than one repository, where the controller allocates storage in an appropriate repository and issues instructions to the execution agent with the location in an appropriate repository. The summary of the actual collections is then propagated to the controller from the repositories.

主权项

1. A computer implemented method for storing and accessing collected artifacts in an electronic discovery system (EDMS), comprising the steps of:
providing an EDMS configured to manage electronic discovery workflow in an enterprise, to issue and propagate instructions to a collection agent, and to generate one or more collection plans, wherein the one or more collection plans specify one or more custodians that are responsible for data in the enterprise; automatically issuing collection instructions for information technology (IT) and integrating said collection instructions with an overall discovery workflow; providing an evidence repository for managing collected artifacts along with contextual data and metadata, wherein the evidence repository includes a transient storage area to which collected artifacts are deposited, wherein the transient storage area includes a directory structure created based on the one or more collection plans, and wherein the directory structure includes one or more folders that are locations automatically provisioned by the EDMS for depositing the collected artifacts for a given custodian in the one or more custodians; and providing the collection agent configured to perform artifact collection based on the one or more collection plans and to deposit collected artifacts to the one or more folders in the directory structure of the transient storage area based at least in part on a location path of the one or more folders and the one or more collection plans.