ESI is an all-encompassing phrase. It includes word processing files, emails, USB keys, back-up tapes, hard drives, chat data including text messages, Slack, Teams; websites including Facebook, Twitter, and all other forms of social media and electronic communication and presentation.
ESI Facts:
- One Megabyte of data (1 MB) = approx. 500 documents
- One Gigabyte (1GB) = approx. 50,000 documents
- E-discovery tools and software have been developed to help legal professionals search, retrieve, and analyze ESI during litigation and investigations
- ESI often contains valuable metadata, which is data about the data. This includes information such as file creation dates, authorship, access history, and version history
HOW MUCH DATA DO YOU HAVE?
- Over 98% of all information is stored electronically
- Most documents are never converted to paper
- Businesses receive on average 50 MB to 250 MB of emails per day