The problem many companies have with hosted email archiving is that they are essentially paying someone else to do what they could do themselves. I have heard this argument a thousand times at meetings and conferences when espousing the benefits of the hosted model and SaaS. While it’s true that many organizations have the infrastructure in place to support large It networks, it isn’t true that everyone has.
Companies of the likes of multi-nationals and conglomerates will have their own data centers and want to retain control of everything and run it in-house. Not everyone has that luxury though. What about small businesses or new businesses with just a few people. Anyone who has been at the forefront of starting a new business knows the uphill struggle they have to just remain solvent. Having to spend thousands of dollars of computers, servers, networks and other IT elements just to keep email safe isn’t always possible in these situations. Yet to comply with HIPAA, SEC rules, SOX, NYSE rules and others, they have to.
It doesn’t make commercial sense for a small operation of say, ten people to invest in an email server and an archive just to service those ten people. These servers aren’t cheap, neither are they scalable down to that level. What they will essentially be doing is purchasing a server suited to serving hundreds of people and leaving it 90% idle. That will involve 100% of the expense of running it for 10% of the return. Not good business in anybody’s book.
The alternative is the hosted email archiving solution. This is what I espouse at every opportunity. It allowed me to start my business and concentrate on running and expanding it rather than spending launch capital on servers and geeks to run them. I contacted a SaaS provider, leased some Exchange space with an integrated email archive and that was it. I only paid for the users I had, didn’t have to host any systems myself and could just get on with my day.
The other argument against the hosted model is that of security. Many companies will want to retain control and not have someone else having access to their data. I have used these systems for years and never once have had any security concerns. That doesn’t say I never will, just my experience to date has been overwhelmingly positive. If you don’t encrypt your emails then anyone can see them, if you don’t secure your network, anyone can take a look around.
SaaS vendors have to be secure and reliable, otherwise they lose their licenses. They are allowed to use technology because they paint the licensor in a good light. Start letting them down and those licenses soon start disappearing. Anyone in business knows that perception is everything. If someone starts giving you bad press you stamp on it right away.
Hosted email archiving is an answer to the problem, not the only one. In certain situations it is the ideal solution, in others not so. It worked for me because I was small and didn’t deal in security, financial or medical information. It was all proprietary. I still wanted to protect it, and I still had a raft of laws compelling me to keep my correspondence for a few years which is why the hosted email archiving solution works. For once in business, I really do get what I pay for.
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