Complete Backups
A company that offers anything less than complete backup and logs is not worth your time or money. What good is an outsourced mail system if you’re at risk for losing saved emails, important address books and other important files at every turn? It is simply not worth the stress and risk. That’s why an outsource company that guarantees backups and logs for your system is essential. When looking for this feature in a service provider, be aware of storage space usage and limitations. Depending on the types of messages your company sends and receives—the content and nature of the attachments—you might need an extraordinary amount of space. Be sure that the contractor can provide for that space, and perhaps more importantly, be sure that the ability to back up completely is included in the base price, not an additional monthly fee because of larger usage requirements.
Virus and Spam Protection
One of the major reasons companies often switch over to an outsourced email service is because of the comprehensive virus and spam protection. Most people have experienced the influx of spam in recent years. You may have even accidentally downloaded a virus or trojan because of the spam onslaught. While this can be a nuisance or worse in the case of personal computing, it is completely unacceptable in a business environment. The reason is not that employees should not be opening such emails. Rather, it is unacceptable to allow your workplace network to become that vulnerable to spam and viruses. Security on office computers should be one of your top priorities. And because one of the most vulnerable aspects of office computers is the email system and server, finding a company to outsource with that can keep your spam and virus protection up-to-date is worth any hassle you may experience transferring over to the new system.
In regard to specific security features to look for in an outsourcing company, be sure that at the very least, the contractor offers SSL or Secure Socket Layer. This is a very common security protocol, and while it is effective, it may be that your company requires even more security. In this case, ask about other security precautions, such as a division of storage at the server level. This is a simple mechanism by which even if a hacker can enter one server, not all of the data will be compromised. For instance, email addresses might be stolen, but not the content of the emails.
