Four ways to keep e-mail going after a disaster

NETWORK WORLD NEWSLETTER: MICHAEL OSTERMAN ON MESSAGING
09/06/05
Today's focus: Four ways to keep e-mail going after a disaster

Dear networking.world@gmail.com,

In this issue:

* Business continuity options for e-mail systems
* Links related to Messaging
* Featured reader resource
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This newsletter is sponsored by Ciena
Network World Executive Guide: Compliance can be an opportunity
for Network Improvements

Federal regulations such as the Health Insurance Portability and
Accountability Act and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act are driving
increased corporate spending on key IT areas such as security,
authentication, access control and document management. Get
advice from experts. Read about real-world tactics. Learn about
the dark side of compliance: what happens when thing wrong. And,
how mandates are affecting IT budgets.
http://www.fattail.com/redir/redirect.asp?CID=112823
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THE BEST WAY TO STOP SPYWARE

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Today's focus: Four ways to keep e-mail going after a disaster

By Michael Osterman

Last week's onslaught of the Gulf Coast by Hurricane Katrina was
yet another indication that messaging is vulnerable to major
disasters like hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, floods and
other calamities. However, much smaller disasters, as simple as
a leak in a sprinkler pipe above a server room, can have equally
devastating results on the ability of a company to maintain 100%
uptime for its e-mail system.

There are a variety of options that an organization can
implement to make their e-mail system invulnerable to such
disasters.

The most expensive of these is to operate two internal data
centers that are geographically separate, so that in the event
one goes offline, the other simply takes over and maintains
continuity of the e-mail system. However, the cost of personnel,
hardware, software, facilities, telecommunications and the other
stuff needed to maintain a duplicate data center is not trivial.
Conservatively, such a duplicate data center could run $15 to
$20 per user per month, so a 1,000-user organization could spend
upwards of $200,000 annually to make its system disaster-proof.

Another option is to implement a back-up e-mail system that can
cut over very quickly in the event of a failure of the main
system. These systems can make it look to the outside world like
nothing has changed with your e-mail system. Internally, users
can be switched over from the primary system to a back-up
Webmail system that provides key data, such as messages from the
recent past, calendar information, etc. These systems are
significantly less expensive than maintaining a duplicate
facility and offer most of the functionality of the primary
system.

A third option is to use hosted messaging services. Complete
hosted messaging, in which internal server functions are
provided by a third party, makes a company's e-mail system
virtually disaster-proof. Service providers that offer messaging
hygiene functions also can provide a form of business continuity
by spooling e-mail on their servers until their customers'
servers are back online. While the latter option does not
provide real-time access to e-mail during the disaster, at least
the outside world can still send you messages without getting
bouncebacks.

Yet another option is simply to provide employees with personal
Webmail accounts, although this is only marginally better than
having no such capability because of the difficulty of making
sure that everyone is aware of fellow users' addresses and the
fact that e-mail to your primary domain bounces during the
disaster.

A recent survey we completed found that one in five
organizations has not deployed any disaster recovery systems.
Whatever the solution, it's critical for organizations of all
sizes to have a disaster recovery plan of some kind and to
implement systems that will keep the e-mail flowing no matter
the weather.

The top 5: Today's most-read stories

1. VoIP rollouts generate heat, power concerns
<http://www.networkworld.com/nlmsg6285>

2. Cell carriers tackle Katrina damage
<http://www.networkworld.com/nlmsg6367>

3. 2005 salary survey <http://www.networkworld.com/nlmsg4020>

4. Google dives deeper into networking
<http://www.networkworld.com/nlmsg6056>

5. Katrina news <http://www.networkworld.com/nlmsg6368>

Today's most-forwarded story:

Cell carriers tackle Katrina damage
<http://www.networkworld.com/nlmsg6369>

_______________________________________________________________
To contact: Michael Osterman

Michael D. Osterman is the principal of Osterman Research
<http://www.ostermanresearch.com/>, a market research firm that
helps organizations understand the markets for messaging,
directory and related products and services. He can be reached
by clicking here <mailto:michael@ostermanresearch.com>
_______________________________________________________________
This newsletter is sponsored by Ciena
Network World Executive Guide: Compliance can be an opportunity
for Network Improvements

Federal regulations such as the Health Insurance Portability and
Accountability Act and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act are driving
increased corporate spending on key IT areas such as security,
authentication, access control and document management. Get
advice from experts. Read about real-world tactics. Learn about
the dark side of compliance: what happens when thing wrong. And,
how mandates are affecting IT budgets.
http://www.fattail.com/redir/redirect.asp?CID=112822
_______________________________________________________________
ARCHIVE LINKS

Archive of the Messaging newsletter:
http://www.networkworld.com/newsletters/gwm/index.html
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The Challenge of Network Security Today - Webcast Explains

Take advantage of an exciting opportunity to align security
policy with actual implementation in order to meet the demands
of complex enterprise, service provider and government networks

http://www.fattail.com/redir/redirect.asp?CID=112515
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FEATURED READER RESOURCE
VoIP

For the latest in VoIP, check out NW's Research Center on this
very topic. Here you will find a collection of the latest news,
reviews, product testing results and more all related to keeping
VoIP networks performing at their best. Click here for more:
<http://www.networkworld.com/topics/voip.html>
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