OT: Outsourced services

[Paul Welsh]

Thought it was worth mentioning for anyone who doesn't know that Google
bought Postini last year and are offering outsourced mail scanning for $12
per user per year.  For $25 they'll archive all mail for a year.  For $45
they'll archive for 10 years.  http://www.google.com/postini/compare.html.
The archiving will include internal mail for those running certain products
like Exchange Enterprise.

I've used MailScanner on my own dedicated server for years.  Recently I
spent some time setting up 2 x MailScanner servers for the company I work
for (80 - 100 people).  However, when I found out about Google's offering I
suggested we switch.  The pricing and the archiving facility made it a no
brainer.  We're going through one of Google's partners so there is a setup
and annual support fee but it's a few hundred quid.  The sterling pricing
for the actual service is equivalent to the dollar pricing.

We used to use MessageLabs which used to cost over GBP40 per user per year
so the Google service is about a fifth of the price.

I was talked through the Postini web interface yesterday and it seems highly
configurable.  So configurable, in fact, that I'm glad we are spending a bit
more to get some support from people we can phone.

Presuming that the service works well in blocking spam and viruses, I really
think SMEs have to think very carefully before installing their own mail
scanning server.  Of course, for big organisations where money is tight and
user numbers are high then $12 per user per year is still more expensive.
For a company like the one I work for though, the time taken to maintain our
own mail servers is just not worthwhile at these prices.