Almost Perfect Email

It's not news to say that businesses are addicted to email, with more than 60 billion messages sent per day, mostly by large corporations. Email has long dominated office communiqué, decimating the lonely fax machine and putting on-notice the last holdout landline telephones. Businesses are so dependent on email that they will go to any lengths to ensure it's always fully functioning, spending tens of thousands each month on software and hardware just to maximize uptime and keep out junk. Even a few minutes of email downtime can reverberate through the company like a bad case of the flu-from research and development to the frontline sales team, email is the oil that keeps the engine running and profits flowing.

But the demand for flawless email often comes as a tall order for Web hosts. The 99.9% uptime guarantee that many hosts pledge can rarely be achieved with existing technology. In most cases, an entire email system for small to medium sized businesses is hosted on single server that has no redundancy. In the event of a hardware or software failure, the email system will almost surely face downtime. Moreover, without utilizing an expensive top-tier datacenter facility, hosts simply cannot meet year-over-year uptime promises.

Out of this frustration comes the next evolution of email hosting technology-Cloud Computing. In a previous article, I outline the concept and technology behind this new infrastructure design. Introduced by name in 2007, Cloud Computing refers to the public internet and is not a specific identifiable device; the Cloud is a decentralized collection of interdependent servers, housing both applications and data. Examples of Cloud technology, where a single interface is powered by many servers, include Google's suite of productivity applications, such as Gmail and Google Docs.

So how can Cloud Computing be used to boost email performance?

Consider the most common sources of downtime and underperformance: network and utility outages; data loss; hardware failure; software maintenance; and usage spikes. In each case, the redundancy and load distribution capabilities inherent to Cloud technology help optimize email reliability. In cases where software maintenance requires servers to be rebooted, the Cloud simply shifts incoming traffic to another server. In cases of data loss, algorithms can recreate data as long as a certain percentage of the original dataset remains.

Convincing argument?

Cloud Computing can be implemented on your domain name in three basic steps to improve your email performance:

Step One: Get redundant DNS -- Assuming you have a domain name, make sure your domain name registrar uses DNS (Domain Name Service) servers that are fully redundant, ideally located in facilities around the world. These servers point incoming traffic to your specific Web server or cloud. When DNS servers fail-although rare-many new visitors can't access your Web site or send you emails.

Step Two: Get hosted by a Cloud - Depending upon your needs, there are a variety of hosting providers that offer Cloud-based email hosting. Both Google and Yahoo provide private-label email services, allowing you to use your own domain name with their robust email hosting platform. (For my personal email, I've chosen Google's service because of its 25GB disk space allowance and superior usability.) Both services offer solid anti-spam filtering, address book management and migration tools. You may instead elect to use a lesser-known, private email hosting provider; just be sure the company utilizes Cloud technology.

Step Three: CNAME setup - Once you select an email hosting provider, you need to designate it within your domain name. By updating the CNAME DNS entry for your domain name, you are able to send and receive email through the provider you have selected. Both Google and Yahoo provide special instructions for this configuration. Other email providers will offer similar documentation.

With these steps completed, you can now reap the benefits of the next generation of Internet technology-Cloud Computing. Just don't take the second generation of email for granted, as the reign of the fax machine, carbon paper and telephone was not that many years ago.


Errett CordAuthor Info: Errett Cord is a former excutive of a web hosting firm who has worked with many small- to medium-sized companies developing effective internet strategies. As part of his commitment to helping others improve their businesses, Errett has become deeply involved with Magento and how to effectively set up and manage the platform. Contact Errett Cord (ecord@ecord.us)