Staying Secure with Hosted Exchange Server
There have been more than a few companies who have wanted to use Microsoft Exchange 2007 but who haven’t had the money to integrate it in house. The logical solution, then, is to use a hosted exchange server for your needs, but many companies do not want to use a server out of the house because they are worried that their company secrets will be passed along to their competitors. How are you going to know for sure that your company secrets will be kept secret when you are choosing to outsource?
Security
When you’re choosing to outsource your email, you want to choose a company who takes your security extremely personally. To begin with, choose a company who has some of the best anti-virus and spam protection on the market. Feel free to research the protection that the company is offering. If they are offering a program like Postini, you can be assured that they are offering you only the best. Postini is recognized as a world leader in anti-virus and spam protection. It is able to process 10 times the amount of email that comes into your box than any other email security service which means that you never have to worry that a virus will slip through or that the protection will cause your systems to run slowly.
You want to make sure that you not only hire a company that has the best technical security, but also one that has the best physical security as well. You will want to use a company that has at least a Tier 3 data center which has monitoring 24 hours a day. Having someone available at the site means that you not only have someone available to answer your questions, but there is also someone monitoring the center to ensure that the server doesn’t go down.
Power
One thing that many companies worry about, even those who have their own server, is the power going out. If the power goes down, your will lose all of your access to the computer and your necessary programs. When you’re looking for a hosted exchange server, you should search for one that has redundant power. This means that there is continuous power to the server even if the power should happen to go down. Back-up generators will allow the servers to keep running even if a huge power outage occurs.
In-house Protection
Another good thing about a hosted exchange server is that you can ensure that not only is the server safe, but that your own employees are keeping things secure as well. You can play “big brother”, as it were, making sure that none of your employees are emailing your company information to other interested parties, and also keeping track of their work effort.
It makes sense that a business owner would be a bit nervous using a hosted exchange server, but once you do the research and find a company that is secure in every way possible, you should be able to find a company who meets all of your company’s needs.
