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E-mail management provider MessageOne introduced a new version of its flagship e-mail continuity product Dec. 5 that features integration with Microsoft Outlook and enables users to continue sending and receiving e-mail without interruption in the event of a server outage.
MessageOnes EMS (Email Management Services) Email Continuity service is the only e-mail continuity package that combines Outlook integration, protection against all common e-mail threats and support for BlackBerry wireless devices, Marketing Director Paul DArcy told eWEEK.
If an e-mail server goes down unexpectedly, the MessageOne hosted service takes over automatically within a minute, transferring the companys entire e-mail load—plus its history—to its own servers, retaining the look and feel of Outlook for employees as if no outage occurred.
Since e-mail has become the most-used and most critically important business application, about 75 percent of companies can expect an unplanned e-mail outage within the next year, according to the Austin, Texas, companys research, DArcy said.
“Companies depend on e-mail communication to keep things moving. They need assurance that their e-mail services will continue in the event of a problem, and they dont want to have to overpay to have that assurance,” DArcy said. “E-mail is just too important.”
Many organizations have found that traditional approaches to high availability, such as replication, are expensive and still vulnerable to lengthy outages caused by database corruption, Active Directory corruption, configuration errors, viruses and malware.
As the only approach to provide full protection against outages, e-mail continuity managed services have grown rapidly. Up until now, these systems have required users to switch to a Web-based back-up e-mail system during outages, causing user disruption.
When e-mail outages occur, administrators can failover to EMS in less than 60 seconds. Behind the scenes, EMS automatically redirects users as they work in Outlook to a Linux-based backup e-mail managed service that has no dependencies on Exchange, Active Directory or a companys internal IT infrastructure, DArcy said.
“Exchange outages are a fact of life in todays corporate world—but it does not have to mean that businesses must grind to a screeching halt,” said MessageOne Executive Vice President Mike Rosenfelt.
Key features of EMS Email Continuity, according to the company, include following:
- Guaranteed 60-second e-mail continuity: Full e-mail access through Outlook, a Web browser or BlackBerry wireless device.
- Total downtime protection: Uninterrupted global e-mail access, no matter what the cause of the outage.
- Security: Satisfies the most stringent regulations and hosted within hardened secure data centers.
- Active compliance: Fully compliant with third-party archiving system and corporate e-mail retention policies.
- Quick recovery: Automatically moves all sent, received and deleted e-mail back to primary system in one step, with all forensic information intact.
- Fully managed service: Requires no dedicated staff and can be deployed in a few hours.
MessageOne has more than 1,000 customers and millions of users, DArcy said.
The new version of EMS Email Continuity is now available, with pricing starting at $2 per user, per month, depending on configuration and number of seats, DArcy said.