Monday, December 19, 2011

Email Continuity Is Vital

By Jennifer Flowers


Email continuity isn't something a lot of people think about, but when the Gmail server went down not long ago, millions of pounds were lost in productivity. All of a sudden email continuity and email archiving were the hottest topic for a while.

Ensuring that email records are always available isn't something the average email user needs to think about. However, email archiving something every business or organization needs to ensure email continuity. It's essential that their email archiving is a centralized, secure and 100% reliable process. Email archiving is about more than email storage for the sake of keeping records and proving compliance with various standards at a later date. No business can afford an email outage, not even a short one.

We live in an 'always-on' world where access to email is taken for granted. Much like breathing, access to email is now seen as something that is always there. We expect to be able to access our emails from our Blackberry devices, iPhones, laptops, computers, an internet cafe half way around the world and anywhere at all we might find ourselves. Email continuity isn't a word in our vocabulary but it is exactly what we expect.

Email systems are far more complex than most people realise. A lot goes on when you send an e-mail. When you hit the send button a pathway is followed that leads to a server. To get there each email has to follow a unique number. If it uses a name instead of a number there is usually a slight delay, but to the user this is imperceptible. The delay is caused by the DNS registry being checked. The DNS database contains details of all domains and most sub-domains. This is where email continuity systems come in.

The DNS lookup part of the process happens and most mail exchanges have one address for delivery. The larger systems have 2 or 3 addresses. This is to ensure that if one server goes down the others can take over and accept the email in place of the main address. Because the backup system is an exact clone of the main system the chances are the user will not even notice. Having a backup system ensures email continuity for all customers.

We expect email 24/7 and it is so important that businesses mirror servers are a more typical solution. When the main system is being repaired or maintained the mirror system takes over immediately this move is seamless. This form of email continuity is relatively expensive so many companies fall back onto a separate email archiving system. That archive system can sit on the same rack, but that is quite a risky option. A far better option is to put it the backup onto another physical server or store it in the cloud.

Making sure that email is never down is more important than ever. IT departments are expected to provide total email continuity regardless of how complicated that may be. Having a reliable emails system is essential if a firm is to avoid letting its customers down.




About the Author:



No comments: