If an organization has a reasonable expectation that a legal case may arise, then that organization is required to preserve all electronic records, such as email, web pages, and IMmessages. As a result, organizations that have a reasonable expectation of being involved in litigation can take steps to preserve electronic records. In-place hold is an addon to eDiscovery which enables you to place individual mailboxes on hold and preserve messages in that mailbox, preventing both accidental and deliberate deletion. In-place hold is configured as part of setting up an eDiscovery search. If you have the right licensing level (ExchangeOnlinePlan2 or ExchangeOnlineArchivingLicense), then the option for In-Place Hold is available.