In recent years, mainly due to concerns over spam and a general trend towards centralization, problems have arisen for small organizations and home users wishing to run their own email server. Problems encountered by small mail-servers include zealous use of blacklisting and a presumption of guilt by blacklisting services and large email providers, which classify “new” servers as spammers by default. Such measures have inevitably reduced the overall number of small email-servers, and some end-users have opted to outsource to paid services instead, exacerbating the problem for those not wishing to outsource. Outsourcing is the process of contracting a business function to someone else. It is sometimes confused with off shoring, though a function may be outsourced without off shoring or vice versa. The opposite of outsourcing is called vertical integration or in-sourcing.

Two organizations may enter into a contractual agreement involving an exchange of services and payments. Outsourcing thereby helps the firms to perform well in their core competencies and thus mitigating rise of skill or expertise shortage in the areas where they want to outsource. Of recent concern is the ability of businesses to outsource to suppliers outside the nation, sometimes referred to as off shoring or offshore outsourcing.

One of the biggest changes of recent years has come from the growth of groups of people using online technologies to use outsourcing as a way to build a viable service delivery business that can be run from virtually anywhere in the world. The preferential contract rates that can be obtained by temporarily employing experts in specific areas to deliver elements of a project purely online means that there is a growing number of small businesses that operate entirely online using offshore outsourced contractors to deliver the work before repackaging it to deliver to the client. One common area where this business model thrives is in provided website creating, analysis and marketing services. All elements can be done remotely and delivered digitally and service providers can leverage the scale and economy of outsourcing to deliver high value services at vastly reduced end customer prices.

A mail server is a computer that serves as an electronic post office for email. Mail exchanged across networks is passed between mail servers that run specially designed software. This software is built around agreed-upon, standardized protocols for handling mail messages and the graphics they might contain.

Using an outsourced email provider means you can check email via a web page. The advantage of this system is that you can check the email from any computer with internet access. This is important for employees who may need to check business email from home or while on business trips. In the changing face of business, there is a lot more telecommuting workers than ever before, which further necessitates web-based email.

There are certain issues to consider when using an outsourced email provider. The email provider will set up redundant firewalls and virus protection to keep the email data secure. However, you should not assume that they have taken care of all your security needs. Security needs to occur from both ends–including the home computers of employees who are checking email remotely.

It is important for the office network to also use redundant firewalls so a hacker cannot gain access to the online email account. It is a good idea to have the network set up by a professional network designer. This will entail a hacker trying to infiltrate the network to see if there are any holes in the system. Network maintenance is key to patch up security breaches.