Automated Data Retention and Defensible Disposition

Automated Data Retention

Keep what’s required. Confidently dispose of the rest.

With a continuously update data catalog and Exterro Data Retention, you can automatically classify records, link them to retention rules, flag what’s past its lifecycle, and take action confidently—all within one platform built for Information Governance, Security, Privacy, and E-Discovery teams.

Whatever your role, data disposition can help

Information governance leaders

Enforcing retention schedules and implementing defensible deletion

Security executives and architects

Reducing breach exposure by eliminating unnecessary ROT data

Privacy professionals

Operationalizing the data minimization principle across personal data and documents

eDiscovery and litigation support teams

Reducing the data universe before matters arise—minimizing cost, complexity, and risk

automated data retention

Achieve business outcomes that matter.

Most organizations keep far more data than they need—creating unnecessary risk, cost, and complexity. Exterro makes it simple to enforce your retention schedules and defensibly dispose of data that's no longer needed.

Reduce breach exposure

Shrink your organization's overall data footprint to minimize attack surface and blast radius.

Automated data retention

Enforce retention schedules across systems, records, and jurisdictions.

Shrink data storage and eDiscovery costs

Remove redundant, obsolete, and trivial data and shrink the evidence universe for litigation, regulatory, and cybersecurity risks.

Audit-ready proof

Fully document every policy, approval, and deletion for internal audits and regulatory reporting.

Automated Data Retention

Capabilities powered by deep data insight and Exterro Data Retention

rules engine

Retention schedules and rules engine

Centralize retention requirements and apply them automatically across systems, categories, and regions. Manage exceptions, automate triggers, and track every decision with complete visibility.

data catalog

Live data understanding and records classification

Continuously discover, catalog, and classify records wherever they reside. Designed with privacy-by-design, data remains securely within your organization’s environment.

privacy-by-design

Disposition & minimization insights

Automatically flag personal data and records that have met their retention period, serve no current business or regulatory purpose, or are ROT. Factor in usage, owner, and last-accessed details; then take policy-aligned actions (delete, archive, anonymize, or route for review).

litigation obligations

Legal hold detection and awareness

Connect directly to your organization’s existing legal hold application to identify which records or documents are currently under hold. Exterro OptiX360 is also natively integrated with Exterro’s market-leading Legal Hold solution.

automated workflows

Defensible workflows, approvals, and reporting

Review queues, multi-level approvals, change logs, and regulator-ready reporting ensure every action is authorized, auditable, and defensible.

Data Retention

Policy previews ("dry runs") and staged execution

Safely preview the impact of retention and disposition rules before executing at scale; validate scope, exceptions, and outcomes, then roll out with confidence.

Part of the Exterro Data Governance suite—bringing together privacy, security, and legal teams on one unified platform.

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How it works

See how Exterro delivers automated data retention and defensible disposition, bringing together compliance, legal, IT, and IS workflows into a transparent, defensible process.

Rules definition

Import your retention schedule and map rules by category, jurisdiction, and trigger.

Discovery and classification

Discover and classify records across connected systems.

Retention obligations

Screen for legal holds, legitimate business use, and retention requirements to isolate what can safely be removed.

Approve actions

Stage and review candidates with multi-step approval workflows and documented justifications

Execute retention

Execute policy-aligned actions—delete, archive, anonymize, or quarantine—with complete audit trails.

Demonstrate compliance

Prove compliance with automated reports and continuous optimization based on policy previews and results.

Learn how Exterro partners with customers to deliver defensible data retention.

"They ask the right questions—not just, ‘what’s your process, but how do your records relate to industry standards? To global standards?’ It puts you in a better position to defend your practices."

Paul Richardson

Director of Contracts and Compliance, Verra Mobility

Data Sources

Integrations

Integrations + Data Sources

Connect seamlessly to where your records live: Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, Box, Slack, Salesforce, ServiceNow, Workday, Snowflake, Databricks, AWS, Azure, Oracle, SAP—and many more through Exterro’s connector library and open APIs.

Explore Data Connectors

Microsoft 365

Google

Dropbox

Sharepoint

Google Drive

Slack

Teams

Box

Salesforce

Dropbox

...and many more through Exterro's connector library and open APIs

Automated Data retention and defensible disposition

Get started today.

Learn how you can start your automated data retention and defensible disposition program with Exterro.

Get a Demo

Learn about Exterro Data Retention

Time to First Value

Launch policies and surface disposition candidates within days; expand automation in weeks.

Pilot Quickly

Import schedule → discover & classify → surface disposition candidates → review & approve → execute → report.

Governance built in

Role-based access, approval controls, quarantine options, and rollback paths.

Aligned with global standards

Privacy minimization (GDPR, CCPA/CPRA, LGPD), security regulations like NYDFS, and Information Governance best practices in the EDRM model for defensible lifecycle management

Automated Data Retention & Defensible Disposition