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 email is always available isn't something the typical user thinks much about but email archiving is a critical requirement for every organization to help ensure email continuity. It is essential that it is centralized and secure. Email archiving should be about more than just email storage for the sake of record keeping and compliance because businesses can no longer afford an email outage for any length of time.
The world is 'always on' world and access to email is taken for granted. The ability to send and read email is seen as something that is always available as natural as breathing. You can access your emails from your Blackberry, iPhone, internet ready TV, laptop, netbook, tablet, computer or an internet cafe practically anywhere in the world. Email continuity isn't a phrase many people have even heard, but it is exactly what we expect from our email provider and to a large degree get.
Email systems are more complex than people realise. In fact, little thought is given to what might happen as you press send. When an email goes from a device, it is usually navigating a pathway direct to the server using a number to access the server. Use of a name causes a minor delay and one no one likely notices as the email route needs to be checked in the DNS. The DNS is the system that has a registry of all information about every domain and subdomain. Each domain (and some subdomains) also have unique email information associated with them and this is where email continuity systems are first hit.
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.
In our world where we always expect email, and where it is essential for businesses, mirror servers are more common. These systems take over once a system goes down ensuring there is a seamless move from one physical server to another and while one is being repaired, another is used with no one the wiser. This is expensive email continuity. A less expensive option to provide a type of email continuity is to failover to the separate email archive system which is often sitting on a different server either in the same rack (which is risky) or is in another server location or in the cloud. This is a safer way to provide true email continuity as the servers are physically located in different places.
Ensuring that your email is never down is essential to not letting customers down. All IT departments have email continuity as one of their main objectives.
Ensuring email is always available isn't something the typical user thinks much about but email archiving is a critical requirement for every organization to help ensure email continuity. It is essential that it is centralized and secure. Email archiving should be about more than just email storage for the sake of record keeping and compliance because businesses can no longer afford an email outage for any length of time.
The world is 'always on' world and access to email is taken for granted. The ability to send and read email is seen as something that is always available as natural as breathing. You can access your emails from your Blackberry, iPhone, internet ready TV, laptop, netbook, tablet, computer or an internet cafe practically anywhere in the world. Email continuity isn't a phrase many people have even heard, but it is exactly what we expect from our email provider and to a large degree get.
Email systems are more complex than people realise. In fact, little thought is given to what might happen as you press send. When an email goes from a device, it is usually navigating a pathway direct to the server using a number to access the server. Use of a name causes a minor delay and one no one likely notices as the email route needs to be checked in the DNS. The DNS is the system that has a registry of all information about every domain and subdomain. Each domain (and some subdomains) also have unique email information associated with them and this is where email continuity systems are first hit.
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.
In our world where we always expect email, and where it is essential for businesses, mirror servers are more common. These systems take over once a system goes down ensuring there is a seamless move from one physical server to another and while one is being repaired, another is used with no one the wiser. This is expensive email continuity. A less expensive option to provide a type of email continuity is to failover to the separate email archive system which is often sitting on a different server either in the same rack (which is risky) or is in another server location or in the cloud. This is a safer way to provide true email continuity as the servers are physically located in different places.
Ensuring that your email is never down is essential to not letting customers down. All IT departments have email continuity as one of their main objectives.
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