Active and historical email have different storage requirements
Messages used every day and messages created many years ago do not necessarily need to occupy the same storage tier.
New email benefits from fast active storage, while older communication can be preserved in a more economical archive layer.
Storage efficiency
If an employee has accumulated a 40 GB mailbox at a previous provider, moving all 40 GB into active storage may not be necessary.
Historical messages can remain available in archive storage while newly received email uses the active mailbox.
User access
Archiving should not mean that users lose access to their old communication. A dedicated “Past Emails” section in webmail can provide access to archived messages.
Specific date ranges can also be restored to the active mailbox when necessary.
This approach helps businesses preserve long-term communication without unnecessarily expanding active email storage.