I came across a very interesting article/research this past month written by Michael Osterman from Network world. The article focuses on a very common question that most customers and decision makers ask when they are thinking of signing up for a Hosted Exchange account or establising an internal exchange solution: How secure is a hosted environment? (Please click on the link if you want to read the article)
This is a question I literally get every day and along the same lines I also get: “But how do I know that my information is really secure?” “What if it goes down will I lose everything?”
Let me once and for all try to answer these questions and convince you that Hosted Exchange is a lot more secure than an ON PREMISE Exchange solution.
It really gets me frustrated when I talk to clients that are comparing the price and the reliability of a 1-2 servers infrastructure that runs exchange internally to the Exchange hosting solution we are offering (or for that matter that any experienced hosted exchange provider is offering). Let’s be serious here and compare apples with apples. SherWeb’s messaging infrastructure is comparable to any big fortune 500 infrastructure: (http://www.sherweb.com/hosted-exchange/exchange-infrastructure), In that case what can a 2-5 server environment really be? Let’s look at some interesting facts:
Typically this is what most companies have or are looking to have in terms of their email Infrastructure.
• One or 2 mail servers running an outdated version of Exchange 5.5, 2000 or 2003 with Outlook 2003 or less
• No data center – Servers are in the actual office with no supervision, no 24/7 security and most often wide open on the World Wide Web.
• Usually the entire Exchange infrastructure is administered by 1 technician for 100 employees and managing Exchange is not his only priority
• NO spam protection
• NO intrusion detection system
• NO 24X7 technical support
• NO consistant management of software updates
On the other hand, this is what most Hosted Exchange companies have: (http://www.sherweb.com/hosted-exchange/exchange-infrastructure)
• Highly secured tier 4 datacenters monitored 24/7 physically and remotely
• 8+ years of expertise in web and e-mail hosting
• Over 50 servers minimum in redundancy providing 99.99% uptime in remote locations
• Team of messaging experts and technicians 24×7
• Solid partnership and Gold Certification with Microsoft and other providers
• Intrusion Prevention System
• Advance spam and anti-virus protection
• Regular check up and maintenance on the infrastructure
• SLAs and Disaster recovery plans
And a lot more… Now which one sounds more secure?
On top of that, customers seem to forget that it is our core business, our bread and butter, to take care of emails. We treat our customer’s data very carefully as if it was our own. Remember that we’re in business because many companies trust our privacy and security policy. Our survival as a business depends on how well we deal with privacy issues and security issues.
When you consider that close to 61% of malicious security attacks come from employees or former employees within an organization according to a 2005 survey, “The Global State of Information Security”, you might want to take a few minutes to ask yourself: if your on-site emails really secure? Moreover, you are protected by law against unsolicited access to read and/or disseminate information which one is not an owner of. And in the unlikely event that the systems goes down, you can be sure that nothing will be lost as any serious provider constantly backs up your data every day using a highly reliable SAN that will provide the best environment possible for your data.
As a final thought, let me ask you this question: have you ever considered having your own phone system and managing it within your company? Most likely Not, and why should you want to? You have gone through life with the idea that telecommunications are handled by external companies that know what they are doing and you have grown up to blindly accept this concept and business model. Yet, how do you know if your conversations are not tapped, and if someone is not recording everything you say? You might think that I’m pushing it a little bit but am I really?
The concept of outsourcing emails is very new to the world. Most people still feel uneasy with the trend because they are not used to it and it has not yet been accepted by the majority of businesses.
So to all of you who are wondering… YES Hosted Exchange is reliable and secure! The outsourcing of emails under the SAAS model is definitely not just a trend, it is a well known and popular business solution that makes a lot of economical sense. To conclude, STAY WITH WHAT YOU ARE GOOD AT and let the hosting companies whose core competencies is managing emails deal with your headaches (or emails I should say 
). Trust me, chances are we will take better care of it then you.
That’s it for me. Feel free to write to me if you have any questions.
Thank you for reading
Until next time take care
