Messaging News - June 2008 - (Page 27)

SERVING UP MANAGED AND HOSTED MESSAGING SOLUTIONS by Melisa LaBancz-Bleasdale not generate their own electricity or drill their own wells, organizations should consider messaging to be a utility service that a specialist provider may be better equipped to manage,” says Michael Osterman, principal of Osterman Research. The Attraction Many organizations are finding that managed services offer key advantages over in-house implementations, such as capacity and scalability. “Spam volume is so large these days that a business not specializing in email services cannot possibly maintain enough spare capacity at their premise to ward off attacks that may completely cripple all correspondence with malicious spam, DoS, and other attacks,” says Barbara Branaman, president of Concentric. “A good metaphor would be to say businesses are fighting a war against malicious spammers and they shouldn’t fight it without having a well-formed strategy, which includes a layered email defense system.” Branaman adds that other advantages to managed services include: maintenance of the most current capabilities; smooth migration to new messaging platforms; very high reliability; Service Level Agreement (SLA) commitments promising excess mail capacity to handle unforeseen problems; good physical security; and access to expertise that might not otherwise be available. Regulatory requirements for email preservation coupled with legal requirements for quick and easy access to archived communication, underscore the value of having offsite specialist providers. Richard Heitmann, vice president of product management at the EVault data protection business unit for Seagate Service, believes that online backup addresses many of the barriers to implementing an effective backup and disaster recovery solution that organizations face by removing the cost, complexity, and management of those functions. “It requires no capital investment in hardware, minimal staff resources, and data is securely protected offsite,” adds Heitmann. “A backup and recovery strategy is only effective if data can be easily recovered. Online data backup ensures mission-critical nce considered the go-to solution for resourcestrapped small-to mid-sized businesses (SMBs), hosted and managed messaging solutions are fast becoming a practical choice for organizations of all sizes. Such services increasingly appeal to large-scale businesses whose messaging requirements (Microsoft Exchange servers, IM, mobile, storage, security, etc.) have grown too complex and burdensome to handle with in-house resources. By outsourcing functions such as data archiving, disaster recovery, messaging and security, companies are better able to focus on core business objectives, freeing up valuable IT personnel previously chained to mundane systems management. According to a 2007 study by Osterman Research, the hosted/ managed services market is anticipated to grow at a healthy pace as companies realize the benefits of having specialist providers manage some, or all, of the corporate messaging infrastructure. “Just like the vast majority of organizations do O messagingnews.com 27 http://www.messagingnews.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Messaging News - June 2008

Messaging News - June 2008 Editor’s Note Short Takes Classification & Retention Spam: Bigger, Faster, and More Dangerous Bad Behavior and Today’s Reputation Analysis The Changing Locus of Collaboration Serving Up Managed and Hosted Messaging Solutions “On Message” with Ben Gross SCAP Standard Benefits Both Government and Commercial Space Making the Case Learn More

Messaging News - June 2008

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