US Patent 10324897 Techniques for serving archived electronic mail

A system for providing user access to electronic mail includes an email client and an email server. The email client receives and communicates a user interaction with an email message The email server that receives the communication, determines whether the email message stored in a live database or in a backup storage. Upon determination that the email message is stored in a backup storage, the email server performs a message exchange with a backup storage system to perform the user-requested action.