My latest SecurityWeek column, “Leveraging an Email Backbone for Mailbox Migration,” focuses on the email backbone and why it’s an important architectural tool in maintaining email integrity during the email migration process.
Enterprises first need to have an understanding of the standard model for email architecture that is broken into three layers that are defined in the column and in the image below.
Once there is an understanding of the basic email architecture, enterprises can rely on a core email backbone to manage the inter-system email routing in the email backbone.
The on-going efficiencies of an email backbone include:
- Managing complexity
- Providing a routing infrastructure for email-enabled applications
- Off-loading policy processing from mailbox servers
When it comes to the cloud, because most email-enabled applications are not moving to the cloud, the email backbone is the glue that keeps disparate email systems communicating. As enterprises look to migrate email to the cloud, the email backbone functions as the routing infrastructure between those mailboxes in the cloud and the users and email-enabled applications that remain on premises.
The added benefit of an email backbone is that it can become a permanent routing infrastructure between those users in the cloud and those users who remain on premises, thus helping to alleviate security or compliance concerns.
Look forward to your thoughts on this latest column and if you didn’t catch it last year, check out a related post on our blog, “Is your email backbone “spineless” that answers the question: “Do all companies have an email backbone or do they all need an email backbone and don’t always know it?”