Extract from DISCO’s article “Ediscovery for Google Workspace with Google Vault”
Most legal teams assume Google Vault has them covered for Google ediscovery. It’s built into Google Workspace and offers a suite of discovery tools for Google Drive files.
But when deadlines hit and the pressure’s on, Vault’s limitations become impossible to ignore‌ — ‌especially if you’re dealing with complex matters, multiple custodians, or evolving compliance requirements.
In this guide, we’ll walk through what Vault can and can’t do, how to structure an effective Google ediscovery process, and where specialized tools like DISCO can fill in the gaps when the stakes are high.
Google Workspace 101
Google Workspace, formerly G Suite, is a cloud-based suite of productivity and communication tools widely used in legal and corporate environments. For ediscovery teams, the most relevant apps include:
- Gmail and Google Chat – primary sources of custodian communications
- Google Drive – central hub for documents, spreadsheets, and presentations
- Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides – common sources of collaboratively edited content, or electronically stored information (ESI)
- Google Meet and Calendar – meeting records, transcripts, and timestamps that support timeline validation
While Vault is Google’s primary tool for managing discovery, not all Workspace plans include access by default. Legal and compliance teams typically rely on the Business Plus or Enterprise tiers, which offer Vault functionality for retention, search, and holds. Lower-tier plans like Business Starter and Standard do not include Vault.
