* The arguments for and against hosted messaging
Hosted messaging – which includes various hosted/managed messaging services, like anti-pam and antivirus filtering, archiving, content management, etc. – is a growing market, but one that is characterized by some very strong opinions on both sides of the fence.
Proponents of hosted messaging capabilities argue that it makes sense to let a specialist take care of your messaging functionality, since these providers can achieve economies of scale that many firms, particularly smaller ones, cannot even hope to achieve. These providers operate data centers that are very secure, have diesel backup generators, redundant communications links and full staffing on a 24/7 basis. Antivirus signatures are updated continually, multiple antivirus and antispam capabilities are often employed, and other capabilities are fully maintained around the clock. Plus, managed security providers can spool e-mail in case their customers’ primary e-mail servers go down.
Those who oppose the use of managed services argue that messaging functionality is a core capability that must be maintained in-house for a variety of reasons. They argue that internal management of messaging systems, including messaging security, is less expensive than if a managed service provider is used. The corporate message store, which represents the primary content store for most organizations, is simply too valuable to be managed by a third party at a remote data center and that security of this repository dictates that it must be managed behind the firewall. Plus, newer software-based and appliance offerings from a wide variety of vendors require very little investment by IT staff for activities like deployment, upgrades, patch management and the like.
Deciding on the best way to manage your messaging capabilities is not a trivial decision. E-mail is the primary communications and file transport mechanism for virtually all organizations and managing this capability properly is becoming more critical over time. Plus, as instant messaging, Web collaboration, VoIP and other capabilities become more widely used, the decisions you make about how to manage your entire infrastructure will become even more important.
Where do you stand on this issue and why? Please send me an e-mail with your thoughts.
