Method and system for storage of unstructured data for electronic discovery in external data stores

A system for management of e-discovery content comprising:

• at least one external data store (EDS) configured to store content collected during e-discovery;
• at least one e-discovery management module (EMA);
• and
• at least one external storage layer (ESL) interposed between said at least one (EMA) and said at least one external data store (EDS) and communicatively coupled with said EDS and said EMA, said at least one ESL including at least one processing element programmed for propagating said content to said at least one EDS and managing e-discovery content stored within said at least one EDS, wherein said at least one ESL constitutes at least one intermediary enabling access to said at least one EDS from said at least one EMA, the at least one ESL further implementing at least one functionality not implemented by the at least one EDS for managing the content stored within the at least one EDS, the at least one functionality including:
• partitioning an underlying data store in the at least one EDS for multi-tenant support, including:
• assigning separate ranges of addresses in said underlying data store to each of a plurality of tenants,
• mapping an item number stored by a tenant to an address within the ranges of addresses assigned to said tenant, and
• storing said mapping at said EDS.

A computer readable storage medium encoded with instructions, which when loaded into a digital computational device establishes an apparatus for management of e-discovery content comprising, the apparatus comprising:

• an external storage layer (ESL) interposed between an e-discovery management module (EMA) and an external data store (EDS) that is configured to store immutable, unstructured content collected during e-discovery, said ESL including at least one module for:
• propagating said e-discovery content to said EDS;
• monitoring storage readiness of content being propagated to said EDS;
• managing e-discovery content stored within said EDS;
• and
• implementing at least one functionality not implemented by the EDS for managing the content stored within the EDS, the at least one functionality including:
• allowing the EMA access to the content as the content propagates to the EDS by caching the content at the at least one ESL as the content propagates to the EDS to eliminate propagation latency, and
• partitioning an underlying data store in the EDS for multi-tenant support;
• wherein said ESL constitutes an intermediary enabling access to said EDS from the EMA.

A method for management of e-discovery content comprising:

• interposing an external storage layer (ESL) between an e-discovery management module (EMA) and an external data store (EDS) that is configured to store immutable, unstructured content collected during e-discovery;
• propagating said content to said EDS;
• monitoring storage readiness of content being propagated to said EDS;
• managing content stored within said EDS, wherein said ESL constitutes an intermediary enabling access to said EDS from the EMA;
• and
• implementing at least one functionality not implemented by the EDS for managing the content stored within the EDS, the at least one functionality including:
• partitioning an underlying data store in the EDS for multi-tenant support, including:
• assigning separate ranges of addresses in said underlying data store to each of a plurality of tenants,
• mapping an item number stored by a tenant to an address within the ranges of addresses assigned to said tenant, and
• storing said mapping at said EDS.