5 ways Mimecast relieves the headache of email A Paralogic Networks Guide www.scholarisintl.com
Introduction Email is one of the core internet technologies; for many businesses in the mid-1990s, the very first touch point with the Internet came with the arrival of email. This was a revolution that raised the tempo of business by enabling commercial information to be exchanged between the desktop PCs of individuals at the click of a button. However, progress often presents challenges, and from the perspective of IT and the management function, the growth of email means that it now poses some significant problems. There is a considerable management overhead and email requires administration by those that are competent and technically proficient. In large organisations, looking after email servers is a full time job for administrators. Compliance is an important aspect of email communication. Today, email needs to be controlled through policy which specifies what can be communicated and with whom. Email needs to be archived and retained in line with the compliance policies that apply to business data in other formats. There are significant security considerations around email. In-house mail servers are integrated with core network components such as computer domains, with implications for network and data security. Email gateways are a primary entry point for malware such as viruses and spyware. One of the big indicators of how much we rely on email is what happens when it is down. For most businesses it more likely to be a case of high anxiety rather than one of Don t worry, whenever. Internet based cloud services provide the opportunity for businesses to offload critical and high maintenance elements of technology, such as email, to external service providers. For those that host email servers in-house, such services offer the chance to reduce the risks and provide some relief from the headache of email. For those that are perhaps more ambitious, outsourced services offer the opportunity to completely eliminate the headache of providing email services with in-house resources. In this guide we look at the some key benefits of obtaining Mimecast Unified Email Management from a technology partner you can trust, like Paralogic.
1. It s a comprehensive email security and compliance solution Mimecast Email Security service offers an always on cloud-based protection service. From the perspective of users and IT management this addresses the two most visible email problems: Spam and malware filtering is carried out in the cloud. It simplifies life from the perspective of administrators by synchronising with Active Directory to inherit group policy settings. This enables the security permissions for individuals and organisational groups to be applied consistently. Mimecast supports your organisation s brand consistency and compliance by wrapping email with corporate stationery and disclaimers. For businesses that want to prevent the unauthorised distribution of sensitive data, Mimecast provides immediate enforcement of Data Leak Prevention (DLP) policies. This prevents protected data from being distributed outside of your organisation s network. 2. It provides a secure, scalable, cloud-based archive for email Mimecast Email Archiving provides a highly secure, resilient and bottomless, unlimited email storage capability. It is cloud-based and there is no requirement for local hardware to support the service. All stored data is encrypted and held in defined and appropriate jurisdictions, eliminating the issues that some organisations have with data stored in the cloud in offshore or in territories that are undesirable in some other way. The stored data is tamper-proof and the service locks in the audit trail. It supports compliance with data retention regulations for email as well as where legal obligations exist for emails or attachments, a feature known as litigation hold. Providing the flexibility and usability that end-users demand, the email archive provides a unique level of integration with Outlook and BlackBerry smartphones. The email archive service is backed by a 100% availability Service Level Agreement (SLA). 3. Provides continuity of email services when there is an outage Mimecast Email Continuity service steps in automatically to deliver email to your end users if you have an outage of your email services. The service provides failover and failback integration, seamlessly integrating with Microsoft Outlook and BlackBerry smartphones; it also provides access to live email, calendars and archived emails for end users through the Mimecast Webmail portal. The Mimecast Webmail portal provides an anytime, anywhere access method to email if the usual email client is unavailable. No in-house hardware is required to support the service and it is backed by a 100% availability Service Level Agreement (SLA).
4. Consolidates files from different sources with a file archive service The Mimecast File Archive service allows files from local drives, network servers, Microsoft Sharepoint sites, and other online storage services such as Dropbox to be archived. This enables users to bring files which reside in different places together in a single archive area. The advantage of doing this with the Mimecast File Archive service is that granular, policy based rules are applied to all files entering the archive. This ensures the enforcement of retention, security, attachment management, and DLP policies. End users are able to access all personal files seamlessly by using Outlook and the Mimecast mobile applications. This is anytime, anywhere, including during outages and events that disrupt service continuity. User self-service means that users as well as administrators are able to search and retrieve files. 5. Integrates with Microsoft Exchange and Office 365 and smoothes migration Core Mimecast services such as Email Continuity, Email Archiving and Email Security come together to provide Mimecast Unified Email Management. Mimecast Unified Email Management for Microsoft Exchange and Office 365 provides a single service in the cloud. For organisations that are planning migration to Office 365 or Exchange 2010 Mimecast simplifies and de-risks the process. The functionality and capabilities of many Microsoft Exchange email systems are extended by point solutions such as anti-virus, archiving or content control products. However, these create complexity of the Exchange environment and increase the risks. Many point solutions are built into Mimecast, enabling them to be eliminated from the Exchange environment. Mailboxes are also lighter. With Mimecast, Microsoft Office 365 and Microsoft Exchange 2010 migrations are much simpler and faster. Mimecast and Paralogic For more information on migration and moving over to Mimecast please contact us for an initial discussion on 01844 293 330. Mimecast is only available through authorised Mimecast partners such as Paralogic. Paralogic is also a Microsoft Small Business partner which means we have the expertise to deploy Mimecast for the Office 365 platform. We deploy Mimecast to support Microsoft Exchange 2010 where it is appropriate and are very experienced at deploying Mimecast. Examples of recent Mimecast implementations include: Property Developer with approximately 150 mailboxes Mimecast reduces the email management overhead significantly for an organisation where large attachments drove the 1GB weekly growth rate of the Exchange database. The solution offers superior continuity in the event of an outage despite optimisation and redundancy of the in-house Exchange server.
Manufacturing company reliant on the Internet and email for orders Mimecast enables this rurally located business to obtain email continuity via 3G during outages that result because the factory is located at some distance from the local exchange. Mimecast Unified Email Management service for Small Business is the ideal solution for archiving emails with clients, which is the chief form of communication. Property investment company with international interests Mimecast provided email continuity during migration from Exchange 2003 to 2010. Email service is critical to the business during the completion phase of property deals. Disruption was avoided and users had full access to their email whilst the Exchange migration was in progress. About Paralogic Network Solutions Established in 2002, Paralogic Network Solutions is headquartered in Buckinghamshire. Our combination of cloud-based services, Help Desk Support and field-based people provide nationwide coverage, letting us make sure our clients stay up and running, no matter where they are located. Over the last 30 years businesses have become increasingly dependent on technology, driving demand for service flexibility and excellence. This trend continues to shape our approach to service. We recognise the differing needs of smaller (less than 25 user), expanding (25 100 user) and midsized (100+ user) businesses. Our service driven ethos enables us to provide services appropriate to each customer s need, enabling the full benefit of technology to be obtained. You could describe us as an honest broker; on one side we partner with our clients because their IT is our business; on the other we maintain partnerships with leading technology vendors, keeping them in touch with the needs of our clients. We focus on delivering cost-effective, sustainable, innovative solutions and qualified, proven IT services. Clients across the UK value our professional services and benefit from implementing our solutions. For more information on Paralogic Network Solutions get in touch: T: 01844 293330 E: sales@paralogic.uk.net W: