There is an old adage that says the only way to assure a job is done properly is to do it yourself. Managing email may be the exception to that rule. Do-it-yourself email requires expertise and cash to stay ahead of the technology curve—cash that might better be spent on core competencies.
Besides the DIY route, small to midsized enterprises have several options on how to manage their growing requirement for email: have someone else host it offsite or have someone else manage a system on their premises.
Benefits Of External Hosting “With email hosting, customers benefit from a team of dedicated IT specialists focused exclusively on email,” says Kirk Averett, senior products manager for Mailtrust (www.mailtrust.com). He lists many positives, including uptime, security, scalability, and cost savings. “There is no large capital outlay,” he adds.
By using an outside host, businesses do not have to deal with maintaining their own email servers, notes Quoc Hoang, program manager at The Radicati Group. “This allows businesses to focus on their core business. Hosting an email server can be costly for small companies.”
While internal email servers do allow for more flexibility and control in feature choices, they can be costly and time-consuming to put in place and maintain. Radicati research shows that by using an outside host, enterprises avoid the hassles of setting up, running, and maintaining an email server. For smaller businesses, hosting provides a cost advantage. “Service providers allow smaller businesses to act big, giving them access to an email solution that smaller companies would not be able to afford to run internally,” Hoang says.
Especially at the lower end, external hosting offers great money-management advantages. “External hosting has no capital outlay for equipment purchases and greater flexibility over time to add/modify the system,” Averett says. For instance, an external hosting service can add BlackBerry licenses for nothing more than an incremental per-user cost. “To deploy the features of BlackBerry Enterprise Server internally usually requires significant hardware and software purchases, even if relatively few users have BlackBerrys,” he notes.
Using an outside email hosting company does mean relinquishing some control. “But the advantage is that internal IT professionals are free to focus on what they do best—projects core to their business. With hosted email, all updates, repairs, patches, and fixes are run on an ongoing, scheduled basis. Internal resources no longer need to be dedicated to secure and maintain the mail servers,” Averett says.
With external hosting, companies do not have to worry about maintaining and managing an email server. And because an email hosting company’s business focuses on staying up-to-date and current on patches, fixes, new software rollouts, etc., management of technology updates is simply another part of its routine.
“An IT manager running an in-house email server might want new software (perhaps Exchange 2007) that might offer compelling new features but require significant planning, hardware, and/or personnel,” Averett says. “When working with an outside hosting vendor, a company can usually rely on the vendor to have the hardware and a transition plan and can reduce IT time spent on the transition. With external hosting, adding mailboxes or removing them, adding broadband access or removing it is all seamless,” he says.
A hosting company manages firewalls, data backup, virus and spam protection, and blacklisting daily. “They innovate to save customers time, expense, and worry,” Averett says.
Internal Management Advantages However, external email hosting is not right for everyone. “Companies that need super-specialized control, highly specialized access to the interface, or the ability to move massive files (more than 50MB) via email might be better served with an internal operation,” Averett says.
The bigger the operation, the more reason there is to keep email in-house. “For large enterprise[s], it would be more cost-efficient to run an internal email server,” according to Radicati research. That is because the investment can be spread over many more users, and there likely is an in-house support team.
“Running an internal email server also gives enterprises more control over their email servers. In addition, there is a serious security issue when hosting email because the company’s emails are no longer located in-house but on another company’s server,” Averett notes.
Flexibility is a key selling point for in-house hosting. Internal hosting offers large enterprises more flexibility. Larger SMEs can choose which archiving, compliance, filtering, and encryption services they want to use.
Another advantage is the ability to choose mailbox sizes for different sets of users, such as administrators. External hosts usually have a fixed price per mailbox, which isn’t cost-efficient for larger companies.
Managed Email There is yet a third option: managed email. Managed email offers enterprises an email server on their premises but run by a managed email service provider. “Managed email is usually customized and allows enterprises to run an email server without having to maintain and manage an email server,” Radicati reports.
No matter what the email hosting strategy implemented, technology updates are another concern. “By using hosted email, enterprises do not have to worry about constantly updating some of their services, such as antispam and antiviruses, themselves,” according to Radicati.
There are other concerns. You should ascertain the level of transparency with any vendor. Will it be around when you need it most? Can you reach it 24/7 on phone or through live chat?
“An email hosting partner who is transparent, available, and completely focused on providing a great email experience can provide a significant advantage,” Averett says. “The ‘little things’ about email can often be the most important.”
by Curt Harler
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