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M2Infotech's M365 Email Extraction Service

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M2Infotech's email and calendar extraction service for Microsoft 365 is a comprehensive solution that leverages a multi-threaded framework powered by the Microsoft Graph API and EWS (Exchange Web Services). This approach is designed for efficient, large-scale data extraction and is fortified by a proprietary reconciliation process that guarantees the completeness and accuracy of all extracted information, including data from online archives and hidden folders.

 

Core Components

 

 

1. Multi-threaded Architecture with Microsoft Graph API and EWS

 

The service utilizes a hybrid approach to data extraction. While the Microsoft Graph API is the primary tool for accessing active mailbox data (emails, calendars, and attachments from the primary mailbox), M2Infotech's solution incorporates Exchange Web Services (EWS) to handle the complexities of online archive mailboxes.

• Primary Mailbox Extraction (Graph API): The system uses the Microsoft Graph API to retrieve emails, calendars, and attachments from the primary mailboxes. This API is well-suited for high-volume extraction from standard folders. M2Infotech’s framework specifically includes HiddenFolders in its API calls, ensuring that data is extracted from hidden folders within the primary mailbox, such as the Recoverable Items folder which holds soft-deleted and hard-deleted items.

• Online Archive Mailbox Extraction (EWS): A known limitation of the Microsoft Graph API is its lack of support for accessing online archive mailboxes. To overcome this, M2Infotech's solution seamlessly integrates EWS for the explicit purpose of retrieving data from these archives. EWS provides full programmatic access to online archives, allowing for the extraction of all emails and calendar items stored within them.

• Multi-threaded Scalability: To handle the massive scale of enterprise data, the solution employs a multi-threaded architecture. This means that instead of processing one mailbox or calendar at a time, the system can spin up multiple threads to concurrently pull data from different sources. This parallel processing capability is critical for:

  • Speed: Drastically reducing the time required for data extraction from thousands of mailboxes and calendars.

  • Efficiency: Optimizing resource usage and ensuring the system operates within both Graph API and EWS throttling limits. The framework includes built-in logic for handling API back-off requests, ensuring smooth and uninterrupted data flow.

 

2. Proprietary Reconciliation Process

 

The core of M2Infotech's value proposition is its unique reconciliation process. This process goes beyond simple data extraction by verifying that every single item has been successfully and accurately retrieved.

The reconciliation process works as follows:

• Item-Level Tracking: The system meticulously tracks every individual email and calendar event by its unique identifier from both the Graph API (messageId, eventId) and EWS. This creates a verifiable manifest of all data intended for extraction.

• Integrity Verification: For each item, a checksum or hash is generated and stored. After the item is extracted and stored in the target system, this checksum is compared to ensure data integrity. Any mismatch triggers an alert for a re-extraction or further investigation.

• Comprehensive Discrepancy Reporting: The reconciliation engine continuously compares the extracted data manifest with the live state of the M365 environment. It can detect if an item exists in a primary mailbox, hidden folder, or online archive but is missing from the destination. This ensures that no data is lost or corrupted, providing a complete and defensible record for compliance, legal, or migration purposes.

By combining a scalable, multi-threaded framework with a robust, item-level reconciliation process that leverages both Graph API and EWS, M2Infotech provides a highly reliable and accurate service for extracting critical email and calendar data from all locations within Microsoft 365. This is essential for use cases such as eDiscovery, data migration, and compliance archiving.