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SMS is setting standards for the email hosting industry in four ways:
Equipment is located in two independent high quality Data Centres in Manchesterwith excellent separate Internet connectivity and all the facilities such as back-uppower that continuously on-line services now require. The locations are connected byhigh speed diversely routed fibre links so that both sites have completelyindependent Internet connections each of which has diverse connectivity. The fibreconnection effectively puts the sites on the same LAN allowing SMS to build inredundancy and data transfers from servers and appliances between sites. Developmentand some backup customer functions are located at the SMS NOC effectively a thirdsite.
Use of high availability data storage from leading supplier NetApps ensures thatdata is always available and backed up continuously using near-instant SnapShottechnology.
Servers are now VMware clusters. This means that the various software servers arerunning on a smaller number of closely interconnected very powerful hardwareservers. Should a software server crash its functions can be running on otherservers in the cluster in seconds (even if the hardware is actually in the otherdata centre). Also because the servers can be used more efficiently less power isrequired hence they are a green solution compared with lots of underutilised smallerservers.
The in-house developed Control Panel allows users to easily manage their mailboxeson-line whenever they want. The CRM system is also available on-line 24/7 allowingusers to manage their billing, at any time, from anywhere.
SMS offers the following email servers: SMS NexGen a powerful POP3/IMAP option, MSExchange, and Zimbra CS plus Windows Mobile 5/6 and BlackBerry support with fullpush email/calendars/contacts/tasks . These are complimented by anti-spam,anti-virus, domain registration and web hosting options. Larger users go fordedicated rather than shared hosting.
The market for email hosting has had two major drivers a) the increasing cost andhassle in installing, running, and maintaining a server and b) the increasing use ofmobile phones for email. The latter requires more advanced email server softwaresuch as Microsoft Exchange, Zimbra CS and BlackBerry BES and places even more loadon the servers and the people who have to maintain them. SMS has just added supportfor BlackBerry mobile phones and also supports Windows Mobile which is available onmany smartphones. Apple iPhone is also supported.
SMS MD Colin Smith commented It is important to stand back and look at what isrequired to build a world class email hosting company and we believe that with thedevelopments we have made, we are setting that standard. Two hosting sites was amajor development allowing us to move towards a very robust system, even towardsdisaster recovery standards. We believe that this will be a major consideration forcustomers as we expand because of the importance of email in the corporate ITstructure. It also increases the incentive for larger companies (hundreds orthousands or mailboxes) to outsource their email to us.
