TITLE: Benefits of Hosted Antispam Services

Cloud computing is a popular topic these days. One of the ways in which cloud computing is being delivered to businesses is by hosted email security services.

A hosted email security provider offers antivirus and antispam protection for their customers using servers hosted off the customer’s premises. This delivery model carries many benefits to the customers.

Equipment Costs – by choosing a hosted service the customer is not required to purchase their own server hardware to run the security product on their own premises.

Support Costs – support is included in the monthly fee to the hosted provider, so the customer is not required to hire and retain staff to manage an on-premise solution. The hosted provider is responsible for all maintenance and upgrades to keep the service running smoothly.

License Costs – because the customer is not running their own server they also save on software licensing costs. Furthermore they are simply paying a per-user license cost to the hosted provider.

Bandwidth – because any virus or spam emails are filtered by the hosted provider that traffic never reaches the customer’s network, saving their bandwidth which is both a cost and a performance benefit.

Scalability – the customer benefits by only having to pay per-user, and then having the flexibility to scale up as necessary by buying more licenses. For on-premises solutions this may eventually lead to outgrowing an existing server, whereas with hosted services the provider manages their overall capacity needs for all of their customers and is responsible for scaling up as necessary to meet demand.

Features – end user control and comprehensive reporting are two features common to hosted services. Some on-premises solutions lack these important features.

Simplicity – for large businesses with multiple network entry points a hosted service offers a single point of entry for email rather than having to manage multiple points of entry each with their own security product installed.

Flexibility – if a hosted service is not performing well or meeting expectations the customer can simply switch to another service without wasting expenditure. For on-premises solutions switching to a new product can be costly because the existing product has already been paid for.

Compatibility – hosted services operate independent to their customer’s normal choice of server operating system or email platform. For on-premises solutions a customer is often constrained by which products will be compatible with their other systems.

The benefits of hosted email security solutions are quite clear and for many businesses a hosted service will be a much more cost effective option than on-premises solutions. Certainly all businesses should carefully consider hosted offerings when they are evaluating antispam solutions for themselves.