Hosted Continuity is an always-on, e-mail continuity and disaster recovery service. The service ensures that a business’s employees have continuous access to e-mail even during disaster and emergency situations. Hosted Continuity makes copies of inbound, outbound, and internal e-mail instream, and then stores those message copies in a rolling 30-day message store.Hosted Continuity is a business continuity solution that helps protect and provide continous access to e-mail for a business and its employees. E-mail has evolved from a simple communication tool into a mission-critical application that supports all aspects of a business. Without access to e-mail, productivity can grind to a halt, and the loss of critical information exchanged through e-mail can be disastrous. Hosted Continuity is one of four distinct services in the Microsoft Exchange Hosted Services portfolio. The service provides a security-enhanced and intuitive Web interface through which users can access their previous 30 days of e-mail and can compose and send new messages in real time during a primary mail system outage. Hosted Continuity is deployed over the Internet, which helps minimize up-front capital investment, free up IT resources to focus on value-producing initiatives, and mitigate messaging risks before they reach the corporate network.
How it Works Hosted Continuity benefits from the in-stream spam and virus protection features provided by Hosted Filtering. As messages pass through the network, a copy of each is made and stored in a security-enhanced 30-day rolling message repository. Similarly, mail sent within the organization is captured through the mail server’s journaling function. If the primary mail environment should become unavailable, due to a planned or unplanned outage, end users can access the password-protected, off-site message repository at any time to read, compose, and reply to messages. Administrators can use a set of continuity management tools to deliver communications to end users during an outage. After connection to the primary e-mail system is restored, messages received during the outage are automatically restored. Any messages sent by means of the Web-based interface can be optionally restored to the primary mail system to complete disaster recovery operations. Because it’s always on, Hosted Continuity can always be used to restore messages that may have been lost or deleted from the primary e-mail environment. The service also includes a set of Continuity Management tools that can be used to deliver communications to end users during an outage.
Solution Overview
End users can access their Exchange Hosted Continuity mailbox by logging on to a security-enhanced Web browser from virtually anywhere. Whether the outage is planned or unplanned, users have access to e-mail.
Tools are built into the system to assist with communication, message management, and user administration.