How you can check e-mail performance for free

On March 1, MX Toolbox launched MX Watch Email Performance Index, a free service designed to monitor the performance of e-mail systems. The index is designed to sample e-mail performance data across a wide range of organizations, both commercial and non-commercial. The index then provides an analysis of e-mail server performance across organizations of various sizes. The index compares current to past performance in order to determine changes in e-mail delivery times and other relevant factors that indicate the health of e-mail systems.

The goal of the index is to allow e-mail administrators and others to view trends in e-mail system performance in near real-time in order to more fully understand what is happening with their own e-mail system. For example, if your mail system performance is suffering, having a window into what is happening across the rest of the Internet can help you determine if the problem is your own or if it’s related to more widespread problems that are outside your control. For those not directly involved in managing e-mail systems, the index can be useful in monitoring the impact that viruses, worms and other problems wreak on e-mail server performance.

Tools like the MX Watch Email Performance Index are useful in helping e-mail administrators determine problems in messaging system performance, and they’re useful for the rest of us to monitor the health of e-mail performance.

On another topic, we invite you to join us for two Webinars that will be held next week: the first Webinar, on March 7, will focus on instant messaging threats and what you can do to protect your network; the second Webinar, on March 8, will focus on e-mail governance and how policy-based management can assist e-mail management. The Webinars are sponsored by Akonix and Sendmail, respectively. To sign up for these Webinars, please visit the Osterman Research Web site.