What is hosted email security?
Hosted (outsourced) email security is a service offered by 3rd party providers which handles the scanning of inbound (and sometimes outbound) email messages. Following the trend toward SaaS (Software as a Service), or “Cloud Computing” as it is becoming known, hosted email services handle such things as spam filtering, virus and other crimeware removal, phishing protection, etc.
Recent Growth and Projections
The last several months have seen spending on outsourced email hosting and security grow at the substantial rate, primarily among small to medium sized businesses. The growth rate within larger corporations (greater than 2500 users) is smaller but also increasing measurably. According to IDC, The Radicati Group, and other analysts, these growth rates should continue to accelerate over the next few years, exceeding an estimated $2 billion by 2012. This represents a 40% growth in the number of seats over today’s figures.
Already, about 5% of SMB users are utilizing hosted email security solutions, a figure expected to grow to 9% over the next few years.
Advantages to SMBs - Reasons for Growth
A variety of reasons are cited by researchers and subscribers for outsourcing email security, but the main ones are:
- Lower Network Resource Requirements: Spam entering a company’s network incurs bandwidth and storage costs, even if it’s caught in spam filters. Outsourced spam filtering solutions only allow legitimate email to enter the network.
- Fewer Maintenance Costs: The costs of acquiring, configuring, and keeping spam filters up to date can be extensive for in-house solutions, especially when you include the cost of the admin’s time.
- Malware Protection: While an outsourced solution shouldn’t replace in-house virus scanners, keeping up with the latest threats becomes the burden of the solution provider for email. These companies often employ up-to-the-minute malware updates and multiple scanning engines.
- Business Continuity: Should a company’s own network fail or become compromised, the external service provider can queue their mail for a period of time, until their Disaster Recovery Plan is executed (you do have a DR Plan, right?).
Reservations
Not everyone is jumping on the bandwagon. The biggest concern expressed by potential customers is the perceived security and reliability of the service providers’ network. However, research done by NetworkWold indicates that many of these providers maintain infrastructures more robust and secure than that of most of the enterprises they serve. Another issue is the concern for the safety of confidential information being in the hands of an external agency, which is why most subscribers only use these services for inbound email, even though some providers offer outbound filtering as well.
Outlook
As IT departments strive to cut costs while maintaining service levels, more will be looking at the ROI offered by outsourced security solutions.
