Advantages of moving Corporate Email to Cloud-Based Email

Advantages of moving Corporate Email to Cloud-Based Email On-premises server-based email solutions are becoming a thing of the past. On-premises email setups are expensive because enterprises have to invest in hardware, software, monitoring, maintenance, and disaster recovery. It is also challenging and time-consuming to take free trials as the storage appliances, and vendors need to install the entire application on the premises just for a trial run. These overheads, the added hassle of installing and managing infrastructure, and many more advantages of moving corporate email to the cloud drive most businesses to cloud-based email solutions.

SaaS applications make up 70% of total company software use (BetterCloud)

Case Study: Mahindra & Mahindra leverages cloud-based email for greater team productivity and scalability

What is a Cloud-Based Email Solution?

A cloud-based email solution is a cloud-native, fully managed SaaS (Soft-as-a-Service) that you can purchase on-demand. Popular cloud-based service providers are Google (Google Workspace), Microsoft 365 (Outlook), etc. Typically, these do not need any particular infrastructure deployed in your environment.

Since this is an off-the-shelf service, enterprises have the freedom to customize services and subscription plans and choose from many cloud-based email service providers based on their requirements.

8 Advantages of moving a corporate Email Solution to a Cloud-Based Email Service

If you are at that juncture in your business where you are seriously considering staying on your servers or moving to the cloud for your email needs, you have to consider the advantages of a cloud-based email. Here are 8 of those advantages:

Easy accessibility with cloud-based email

Cloud-based email is easily accessible.

All you need is a computer/smartphone and an internet connection.

However, if you have an on-premise server-based email solution, you will always have to be on the office premises to access emails, OR you may need to expose your server to the Internet.

With the prevalence of telecommuting and remote working, easy accessibility has become critical.

Cloud-based email services are highly Secure.

The cloud industry runs on strictly implemented security standards and best practices, making it one of the most secure storage and computing platforms.

An independent infrastructure, secured at multiple layers, protects your sensitive data from disasters and natural calamities.

Thus, your email data is secure in the cloud.

For this, cloud-based email service providers do much heavy lifting to make their systems reliable and the safest.

If you unwittingly open a suspicious email and let in a virus in a server-based email, all your data can become compromised.

The worst in a cloud-based email is that your computer gets a virus.

Low Operational & Maintenance Costs

Operating, maintaining, and refreshing servers and on-premise applications is one of the most capital-intensive tasks.

On the other hand, you simply pay a monthly or annual fee for your email usage when signing up for a fully managed cloud-based email service.

In addition, when you subscribe to a cloud-based email service, your subscription is protected by a Service Level Agreement (SLA) that defines the deliverables and guarantees from the SaaS provider.

And research suggests that cloud-based email services deliver a lower TCO vis-a-vis a comparable on-premises email solution.

Affordable Storage Space

What happens when your servers are full?

You have to invest in more servers and storage, update your IT infrastructure, create backups, and hire professionals to install and secure your new servers.

Sounds expensive?

It is.

But in cloud-based email, you pay a small fee to upgrade your storage space in a single click.

Cloud-based email service providers offer vast amounts of server space at a fraction of the price of upgrading your servers.

Integrated workplace productivity applications & tools

Cloud-based email services go beyond traditional email solutions.

You can also avail many applications and tools designed to improve workplace productivity.

Some software and tools include video chat apps, presentation tools, real-time chat tools, document creator & editor, spreadsheet programs, photos, and video storage.

If you want all these apps and tools in an on-premise server-based email solution, you will need to develop them yourself or find compatible ones and integrate them yourself, which is time-consuming and expensive.

Cloud-based email services guarantee high performance.

In the current competitive environment, time wasted is capital lost.

Cloud-based email solutions are fully managed and designed to operate with high performance.

Most good solutions offer guarantees on their performance via a commercially backed SLA.

With the heavy lifting of running a mission-critical service out of the way, you and your team are free to focus on your cost business initiatives.

Even when unforeseen circumstances occur, there’s excellent disaster recovery in place, resulting in extremely low RTO (near-zero downtime) and RPO (high data durability).

Nonetheless, in the rare case of an outage, you can expect a more robust, quicker, and more durable response from a cloud service provider since multiple customers use the same service.

However, suppose such a thing occurs in your on-premise server-based email. In that case, you are likely to face a herculean task coordinating your team, the infrastructure vendor, and the application vendor.

External Archiving for Basic Email Subscription Plans

Basic or even mid-level email service subscriptions don’t come with archiving solutions.

They are available with higher-end, more expensive subscription plans.

But this might be a blessing in disguise as enterprises can avoid vendor lock-in and choose an external archiving solution.

Your primary email service and the backup of your data will be stored in different independent infrastructures, giving you additional security.

External archiving is affordable and allows you to carry on with your current email subscription plan, thus optimizing your costs.

Highly Scalable

As your business grows, so do your email and server needs.

With a cloud email service, you can scale up to subscription plans that are more suited to your needs.

Cloud-based email services constantly evolve and introduce new technologies, software, applications, and tools to improve their services.

As a customer, you have access to these that could further enhance your business email experience.

Key Takeaway

Cloud-based email services are the future of corporate emails.

The advantages of cloud-based email services include a lower TCO, scalability, security, and improved productivity amongst others.

Therefore, it is wise to move your email to the cloud and enjoy advanced email services to power your growing business.