Okay, so in this week’s blog, we have a rather important question for you; whether you are a start-up business looking for advice and support or you are a well-known organisation who has been around for a while with an established IT infrastructure, when was the last time you reviewed your email hosting?
Ensuring reliability of your email hosting is a fundamental part of any business, and can be the difference between a fully recognisable, secure and professional looking email address which gives your company kudos, or one that lets you down thanks to poor hosting.
So if you are interested to learn more about the importance of good email hosting read on…
What is Email Hosting?
Email hosting is a facility provided by mail servers, these servers store and process emails sent to and from your email address, meaning you can connect and communicate with your customers, suppliers, employees, family, friends… basically the rest of the world.
Incidentally, did you know, the first email was sent in 1971, that’s 47 years ago?! Quite astounding to think about it, really!
It’s also worth recognising that email hosting is different to web hosting which, put simply, is a service provided to host your website on the internet, allowing your content to be seen by browsers. There is also domain hosting, (domain refers to the address of your website), which more often than not sits with within your web hosting service.
What to Expect from Good Email Hosting
So what should I be expecting from my professional email hosting provider?
There are of course plenty of ‘free’ email and web hosting services out there but be careful what you wish for. As we recently pointed out in our blog, the term ‘free’ is generally there to lead you down a path where you will experience poor service, lack of functionality and costly add-ons that you weren’t first aware of.
You could even end up paying more in the long run anyway to have a professional company sort out the mess that these companies lead you in to, so whilst we are not saying it should cost you a fortune for email or web hosting, it is worth considering that this part of your business will require a small investment that will pay off in the long run.
The important thing to look out for when first setting up your business email is a domain name you are happy with, and if you don’t already have one, a good email host service provider will help you purchase one. This is definitely a small but highly significant way of gaining status for your fledgling company. For example,
sounds far more professional than
or
YourCompanyName@gmail.com
A good email hosting provider will offer the customer service necessary to keep the wheels of industry turning. If you have a problem with ‘free’ hosting services, there is no telephone number to call or support help desk to turn to. When have you ever heard of somebody contacting Google, Hotmail or Yahoo and getting personalised support? It just doesn’t happen, and the last thing you need on a Friday afternoon at work is your email server to go down and have nowhere to turn to in order to get it back up and running before close of business for the weekend.
Can I do my own In-House Hosting?
You are probably now running the option through your own mind of the possibilities of having your own email server. And as a business person, we would totally understand why you would be thinking along these lines.
This however, is not a great option for small businesses. For one you need a server which generally will cost a lot of money, AND secondly, you’ll need someone capable of managing an in-house mail server.
For some larger businesses, an in-house mail server would be a better choice. In-house mail servers allow greater integration with existing company infrastructure and give administrators more control. Bandicoot offer support contracts which can include in-house mail server management. Contact us for more information.
Contact Us
So if you are a new company looking to set up your IT communication network, or you are an established company wanting to improve your existing systems, why not contact us here, where a member of our highly skilled IT Support professionals is waiting to help you.
We have a range of options available, but which ever you choose, you are guaranteed support whenever you need it. Give us a call on 01282 506 616 or email info@bandicoot.co.uk to discuss your hosting requirements and we will find a tailor-made option just for you.
