Paying a fixed monthly cost for cloud-hosted email represents a far better and most cost-effective solution than paying for the installation, maintenance, upkeep and security of on-premise solutions.

The cloud debate: OpEx vs. CapEx

According to Joshua Liberman, president of New Mexico-based IT provider Net Sciences, Inc., the hardware requirements and licensing costs required to install and operate an on-premise email server outweighs the few benefits.

In-house email servers typically require a large upfront capital expense that can be thousands of dollars, and they require enough space in a dedicated server room that could be used for something else, not to mention these rooms need to be outfitted with cooling equipment to keep the equipment from overheating.

Especially for smaller organizations with just a few dozen seats, emptying the pockets for an on-premise solution just doesn’t make sense as the total.

“The costs are so great that you can’t possibly make the argument for ROI,” Liberman says.

There are other hidden costs that organizations may not be aware of until it’s too late, like mail filtering, two-factor authentication, add-on security tools, log monitoring and comprehensive backups.

“And then finally, you need somebody or a partner to manage, secure and monitor all of this,” Liberman says.

Organizations may need someone to manage the same things if they’re cloud-based, but it’s a lot less intensive. For some cloud-hosted email providers, plans can start under $10 per user per month.

Predictable costs and scalability

In addition to the low monthly cost, this makes budgeting throughout the year much easier than if your organization were to continue running an in-house server.

Server hardware depreciates over time, and it isn’t cheap to upgrade and replace. And, patching security vulnerabilities can come with additional costs.

In the cloud, however, those duties are handled by the provider.

“If you’re looking at cost, it’s not close,” Liberman says.

Adding new seats to an in-house server could require additional hardware and space, and depending on how many seats need to be added, additional IT staff may be needed to help manage the growth.

In the cloud, organizations can add capacity with ease.

“It’s just not an issue in the cloud,” Liberman says. “It’s something you have to build and plan for if you’re on premise.”

Read Next: Three Reasons Why You Should Invest in Cloud-based Email

Security and recovery costs

IT managers or CIOs who are hesitant to move to the cloud prop up the security of in-house email servers as the reason for their stubbornness to migrate to the cloud.

According to Liberman, that argument can hold up in certain situations, but given how cloud providers have drastically improved their security, this aspect is more or less a wash.

“You’ll hear pundits in the industry tell you, ‘In the cloud, you’re dealing with companies with $100 million security budgets and billions of dollars of hardware spread across the globe. You just can’t mimic that.’”

For the most part, that’s true, Liberman says.

However, securing an on-premise sever takes much more work on the end user and their IT professionals and partner than a cloud-hosted solution. That means an on-premise solution will take up valuable resources – time and money – to secure and maintain.

In the cloud, IT managers are only responsible for ingress and egress, while managers of on-premise servers are responsible for a wide range of duties.

“(In the cloud), you’re just not responsible for the server farm and replication,” Liberman says. “You’re responsible for the front door and the back door, if you will, but you’re not responsible for the furniture.”

“It’s all your problem if it’s on premise.”

And, in the event of a failure, recovery of an on-premise solution takes valuable time, prior planning and IT professionals that can act quickly to get the business back up and running.

“The good news is we don’t have to worry about that in the cloud,” Liberman says. “Recovery, for the most part, is not your problem.”

Take Pressure Off Internal IT with Cloud-based Email

Most businesses – unless they have deep pockets to invest in that infrastructure and in-house expertise – can’t depend on a small team of IT professionals to manage an on-premise server.

In-house IT departments can only be stretched so thin, particularly at small organizations with just a handful of dedicated professionals.

Staffing the helpdesk, setting up workstations, responding to security threats and managing an on-premise server is a tall task.  Business leaders who are convinced that they can handle these duties need to be educated.

“If they truly do believe that, then it comes down to educating them otherwise,” Liberman says.

The post The ROI of Cloud-Based Email appeared first on My TechDecisions.

We don’t need to tell you the importance of email and communication because most of the developed world is using email to communicate with coworkers, customers, clients, vendors and more to carry out their duties and run a company.

Now comes the question about where to deploy that critical business application.

Cloud-based email services, as opposed to in-house email servers, allow organizations to deploy the critical business communication application at a rapid pace with minimal technical support and no burdensome upfront capital costs.

Scalability & convenience

If your organization invests in an on-premises email server but is quickly growing and needs to add capacity, you’ll have to spend to upgrade and manage that hardware.

With a cloud-based email service like Microsoft 365 from Microsoft or Google Workspace, your organization doesn’t have to worry about scaling its data center appropriately.

Instead, that work is done by the email provider, affording your organization more time and energy to focus on what really matters — being profitable and serving your customers.

“Cloud email allows an organization to deploy the needed application of messaging, at a rapid pace, with minimal technical support, and no upfront capital expenditure,” says Tommy Mullins, senior vice president of sales at IT provider 1Path.

Since there’s no additional hardware you need to introduce, or an on-site server to install, the speed of deploying a cloud-based solution is much faster and less expensive, Mullins says.

The cloud server is managed by the provider, so your internal IT team can take up other projects and leave the maintenance to the vendor.

Security

Most cloud-based email providers like Microsoft and Google have integrated up-to-date cybersecurity features like security filters, virus scanning and phishing protections.

Cloud computing is now more advanced than it ever has been, and providers now follow a set of cybersecurity standards, and security patches and updates are deployed routinely, taking the burden off your own internal IT staff to make sure your organization’s email is secure.

And, according to Mullins, cloud-based email solutions will help your organization recover from downtime or system compromise faster than on-premises solutions.

“Natively, it includes some key benefits for backup or your email data, as it is already in the cloud,” Mullins says.

Cloud-based email platforms have redundancy built in so users can recover their data stored on the email system much faster than they could on an on-site solution. In some cases, recovery of on-premises solutions isn’t possible at all.

Read Next: Tips for Buying Cloud Email Technology

Availability & Reliability

Cloud email can also give your organization the convenience of being able to access email accounts from anywhere – not just the office.

As the world begins to recognize that remote work brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic isn’t going anywhere anytime soon, more organizations will need to invest in cloud-based email to support their remote workers.

To access your cloud-based email account, all you need is an internet-ready device and an internet connection.

That means your employees can catch up on their work over the weekend or outside normal working hours, making them more productive.

Because of that aforementioned redundancy, cloud-based email servers are inherently more reliable than on-premises solutions.

If an employee’s endpoint succumbs to a BSOD, they only need to sign in from a loaner device or perhaps even their own mobile device, and they’re right back to work.

Cloud Email: the sensible solution in 2020 & beyond

In these days, any disruptions to your business could have a detrimental effect on the entire organization and the livelihood of your employees and customers.

The cost of doing business is getting more expensive each day, cyber attacks are increasing and more and more workers want the flexibility of working from home as an option.

Migrating your business’ operations – including email – to the cloud is now the sensible approach.

The post Three Reasons Why You Should Invest in Cloud-based Email appeared first on My TechDecisions.

In this case, the U.S. government is accusing a man from Brooklyn of “attempting to provide material support to a designated terrorist group in Pakistan.” The man pleaded guilty, and the government admitted knowing about his communications from combing through his emails without a warrant.

As a result, the man is challenging the government’s prying and asking the Second Circuit Court of Appeals to throw out the evidence. Groups, including the ACLU, are supporting the man, “arguing that the surveillance was unconstitutional.”

What decision makers should take away from this case:

While the government claims its intentions for sifting through Americans’ communications are to protect its citizens from the bad guys, not everyone is buying it.

For example, one problem with PRISM is that the government claims to use PRISM to target foreigners. But, ACLU argues that’s not the case: “In reality, it [the government] uses PRISM as a backdoor into Americans’ private communications, violating the Fourth Amendment on a massive scale. We don’t know the total number of Americans affected, even today, because the government has refused to provide any estimate.”

As a result, decision makers whose institutions work with customers and colleagues abroad might consider taking extra care when sending out their communications; this even includes Facebook messages and Google chats. It might also be a good idea to prepare key roles in the institution to fight for the Fourth Amendment, in case an institution’s rights are violated, and court action is required.

The post NSA Challenged for Monitoring International Communications Without Warrant appeared first on My TechDecisions.

This differs from traditional email services in a few ways. In fact, many don’t even realize that their email service isn’t the same thing. The reality is that traditional email is living in someone’s cloud, somewhere, and being pulled down to your local computer and being presented to you from a program. The contacts, calendar, etc. likely lives locally to your computer. It’s not centrally managed or fully accessible from other devices, such as a separate web browser or your smartphone or tablet.

The Benefits of Cloud Email Services

The big difference between email and cloud email is that, with cloud email services, if you make a change in one place it is reflected everywhere else. If I send out an email on my smartphone, my computer will automatically recognize and reflect the fact that I sent that email. This isn’t the case with traditional email services. Cloud email stays in the cloud, lives in the cloud, and is a definitive sync point across devices. The master copy is always accessible.

That’s convenient for both the user and the technology manager. The user can work within any device and be assured that their content will be reflected in the next device. The technology manager can access and edit the full suite of emails from a single location – with total management capabilities because it’s all centrally managed. That means you can set up new accounts, alter existing accounts, and put accounts on hold for employees that may be involved in litigation or recently let go.

Business cloud email has become relatively commoditized and standardized. Your basic level of service should afford you the ability to share, access email of users, 50 GB storage or more, and so on. As you pay more you’ll get more features such as:

• eDiscovery to search through emails and easily find what you’re looking for
• Mail vault to store emails for years for compliance needs
• Advanced mail filtering, inbound or externally, to make sure you’re only getting messages from the right people
• Archiving and Encryption (at rest or in transit) to make sure messages are only being read by the right people

As you can see, cloud email provides much more than management opportunities for the technology manager.

In a traditional email service you’re going to have a certain amount of storage space, say 5 GB, for past emails. That means that once you hit 5 GB, you need to start deleting emails. That’s not a great solution for businesses. There could be a number of reasons why you need older emails – clarifying past correspondence, use in legal situations, fact checking, and more.

Cloud Email services don’t delete those emails forever. Even when clients hit the storage capacity, a mail vault allows emails to be archived forever, potentially, so that you don’t ever lose important information even years down the road. eDiscovery lets you quickly and easily search for phrases or contacts and pull up all of the correspondence surrounding that person. It’s a big thing for compliance, to prove that something did or did not happen down the road.

Mail filtering, archiving, and encryption ensure the security of your messaging. Cloud email can filter out spam and other unwanted messages so that you’re less likely to be hit by a malware attack through email. It can also ensure that your messages are locked to any but those that you’re sending them to. This provides huge benefits in terms of security, and in some industries such as healthcare and banking it’s a necessity to encrypt messages with sensitive information.

Writing a Cloud Email RFP

Most of the major IT providers only use one of a few platforms. You’ll likely be looking at G-Suite, Microsoft Exchange, or a handful of other cloud email platforms for your business.

When you’re writing a cloud email request for proposal (RFP), you’re going to want to let the IT provider know what platform you want to go with, and then include the criteria you want from the implementer. Do you want eDiscovery capabilities? Mail vault? Encryption? Archiving? Say so in the RFP so the IT provider can price out the correct model.

If you’re opening an office or business from scratch, with no legacy archives or technologies, your RFP can be more out-of-the-box, short and sweet. If you don’t know what platform you want, list what capabilities you want, how many users you have, and how many users you plan to get to. Explain how you plan to interface with your mail. How do you want to handle your mail as it grows – creating an archiving strategy is necessary for planning for the future. You may wish to have a consultation with an IT professional before sending this out to get your feet under you.

Typically the IT provider should understand compliance needs for your specific industry. But if you work in a regulated industry like healthcare, it is always helpful to include the compliances you need to follow.

The Implementation Process

The final step is the cutover – moving your organization from a legacy email system to a cloud email system. The question becomes how you want your cutover to look. Can you impact business or is that something you can’t do? Do you want a one-time cutover migration, a staged migration, a hybrid, or something in between?

This will depend on how big the company is. How many locations, how needy are the users, etc. Some organizations can’t go down at all, and that’s fine. Some organization will have the mail cutover at one time – 8:00 on a Thursday for instance – but in doing so the users will be connected to both the old and new webmail. Sometimes automated cutover tools will update and switch profiles so that the cutover time will switch everyone over at once. In this case the IT provider will make sure messages are synchronizing so that the feel is that there is no downtime and no messages are lost.

In complex environments you’ll want staged cutovers. Basically taking one of the previous strategies and doing it department by department until the company is switched over. Otherwise, a hybrid cutover will prompt users at a certain time to close the email service. When they reopen, the service will be switched over. In this case the IT provider is keeping copies of the old and new service until migration is complete.

Information provided by Steve Hall of District Computers. To learn more about cloud email technology, listen to Steve Hall’s interview on My TechDecisions Podcast.

The post How to Get the Best Cloud Email Service for Your Organization appeared first on My TechDecisions.