With email threats hitting enterprises of every size, and implicated in major data breaches, many IT managers are looking for ways to increase protection without creating management headaches. Outlook junk email filters have their limitations, and now, IT also has to consider how vendors might be adding to the problem.
Could hosted email security be the answer?
While some enterprises prefer to have all technology in-house, including equipment and software, hosted email security can offer a number of advantages when it comes to protection:
No on-site hardware
Although a great deal of attention is paid to digital security, when it comes to threats, physical threats also play a large role. If a server room is poorly protected from sabotage, it doesn’t matter what kind of applications are being used, it will still be highly vulnerable. Also, risk can come in the form of power surges, nearby construction, storms, fire and other unexpected events. Hosted email security eliminates the threats posed by on-site hardware, while allowing you to manage your entire email protection solution from a web-based interface.
Dedicated IP address
Not all hosted email security providers are the same. When considering security levels, you’ll need one that offers a dedicated IP address for all inbound email traffic, rather than having all customers sharing an IP address. This ensures a higher level of protection, and offers a safeguard against theft. Similarly, you need a hosting provider that does not co-mingle data, so that your enterprise information is kept secure. Look for a hosted email security provider that can offer these assurances.
First-line filter
Because email will go in through the hosted provider, it will be filtered and analyzed, becoming the first line of defense. That means unwanted emails will never get to your server, causing you to use your own protection to handle them. Sophisticated filter technology helps to reduce false positives and significantly cut down or even eliminate junk mails. The need to implement more security training for employees is reduced, since automated senders of phishing, malware, and spam are blocked before ever getting access to your company’s system.
Updated systems
All day, every day, IT is firefighting across the enterprise. We’ve written about this topic extensively in our e-guide The Secret Costs of Your Email Security. With implementing new software, maintaining equipment, coding business apps, and providing help desk support, it can be challenging to keep on top of upgrades and patches. Many IT managers choose a day during the month to do all the upgrades at once, usually on a weekend and in the middle of the night. But what might slip in before that upgrade date? By contrast, a hosted email security provider should be doing patches and upgrades as soon as they’re available, in order to keep its systems as protected as possible. That ensures you’re getting the most recent anti-attack measures possible.
How secure is hosted email security? Very. This approach not only helps to protect an enterprise’s sensitive information, but it also provides other benefits for IT as well, including lower management costs and updated protection.
If you’re ready to harness the convenience and efficiency of a cloud-based service solution, the Sendio Hosted Email Security Service offers the same award-winning features and technologies as the appliance-based solution.
