This document discusses the total cost of running an email environment, including both upfront and ongoing costs. It notes that the upfront costs include hardware for email servers, archiving systems, and security tools, as well as the costs of migrating systems over time. Ongoing costs include software licenses, updates, support contracts, staff time spent maintaining systems, storage costs as email volumes grow, and the costs of ensuring compliance with regulations. The document argues that organizations should carefully analyze their total email costs in order to identify potential savings through consolidation or outsourcing of email services.

1. A
MIMECASTGUIDE
T
HETOTALCOSTOFEMAIL
PUTTINGAPRICETAGONYOUREMAILENVIRONMENT
Y
oucan’taffordtoignoreemailarchiving,security,internalpolicyorregulatoryrequirements,
butcanyouaffordtokeeppayingforitasmultiplesystemsontopofyouremailsystem?
Whenyouaddupthefullpricetagforyouremailenvironment,fromservertosoftware
toriskmanagementandstaffcosts,itbecomesclearwhyrunningeverythingin-house
canmeanyouspendfarmoreofyourbudgetonmaintenancethaninnovation.

2. CAlCUlAtiNg thE tRUE COSt OF EmAil
YourITbudgetisprobablygoingtobereviewed
overthenextyear;nowisthetimetolookat
whereyoucanmakesavingswithoutmaking
compromises.Todothat,youneedtounderstand
exactlyhowmuchyourcurrentinfrastructure
iscostingyouforservicesthatmaynotadd
competitiveadvantagetoyourbusiness–andto
considerhowkeyapplicationscanbecharged
backtotherestofthebusiness,ifthat’sanoption.
Emailisoftentakenforgranted,withsenior
executivessimplyseeingemailflowto-and-from
theorganizationwithoutanyunderstandingof
thecomplexityinvolved.Ensuringemailisalways
freefromspamormalwareandthatitisnota
vectorforsocialengineeringattacksorleakage
ofconfidentialdataisascriticalasmakinga
permanentrecordforcomplianceorlitigation
protection.Thegrowthofmobilemessaging
devicesnowmeansthatworkinghoursare
nolonger9to5asuserswilloftencheckemail
intheeveningoratweekends,leadingto
anincreasinglylowtoleranceofanyform
ofdowntime.
Organizationshavetendedtoaddtotheiremail
infrastructureinanorganicfashionasnew
threatsorregulatoryrequirementshavearrived.
Theyveryrarelystepbackandanalyzethetotal
costtothebusinessofrunningtheiremail.
Understandinghowmuchyourcurrentemail
systemcosts,andhowthatalladdsup,isthe
keytomakingchanges,andtoprovidingabetter
serviceforyourusers.Itisonlywhenyou
understandtherisksyourorganizationfacesand
thecostsofyourmitigationproductsthatyoucan
performatruecost-benefitanalysis.Andbreaking
outthecostsofatypicalmailsolutioncanbe
quitesurprising–especiallywhenit’sabusiness
criticalservicethatistakenforgranted,which
theITdepartmentispayingfor.It’snotjustthe
initialcapitalcoststhatareanissue;it’salsothe
ongoingoperationalexpenses.Althoughindustry
estimatesthatthecostofmanagingany
on-premisesoftwarecanbeuptofourtimesthe
initialpurchaseprice,foremailstorageit’scloser
toseven-to-one.Acomplexandfragmented
environmentalsointroducesrisk,andriskhasa
financialimpactontheorganizationintheevent
offailure.

3. Ifyou’reusingavirtualinfrastructureyou’ll
Upfront capital investment
needtobesureyouhaveappropriateresources
Manyofthecostsofyouremailinfrastructure
inyourcomputefabricthatcanbeprioritizedfor
aresunkcosts,especiallytheinitialcapital
email,alongwiththerightvirtualizedstorage
outlayofbuyingtheappropriatehardware.
technologies.Addingextraserversorrollingout
Fewbusinessescancopewithasingleemail
upgradestakestime;timethatkeyITstaffcould
serverandaddingpolicymanagement,archiving
bespendingonmorestrategicprojectsandtime
andriskmanagementtoolsmeansadding
thatdelaystheROIoftheproject.Plusyou’ll
systemstorunthemon.Emailisincreasinglya
havetobudgetovertimecostsformigrating
businesscriticalservicewithlowusertolerance
betweenmailserversoutofbusinesshours,
foroutage,soanemailservermayneedto
asanydowntimecouldseverelyimpactexisting
beclustered,orevensetuptoworkovera
businessprocesses,andaffectbusinessrevenues.
WANconnectiontoadisasterrecoverycentre.
Considerthatriskmanagementandregulatory
Highastheyare,hardwarecostsareonly
requirementsdon’tdiminishinafailover
asmallpartofthebillforrunningyouremail
situation,soalargenumberoftheadditional
environment.Softwareaddsfurtherburdens
servicesaroundtheemailserveritselfwillalso
tostrainedbudgets,notjustfortheemail
needtobeclusteredusingtheirownhigh-
serversoftwareandclientlicences,butforthe
availabilityconfiguration.Failoverhardware
overlappingpatchworkofriskmanagement
needstobepartofanyimplementation–
andpolicytoolsrequiredtokeepemailrunning
andalsoneedstoberegularlytested.
smoothly(andofcourse,manyofthoseneed
theirownhardware).
Migration costs
You’llneedtoinvestingoodanti-virus,intrusion
Hardwareandapplianceshaveafinitelifetime,
preventionandanti-spamtoolstoprotectyour
requiringconstantrepurchasingandmigration
desktopPCsandkeepuserssafefrommalware,
every3–5years.Consideranarchiveina
phishing,applicationexploitsandunwanted
commercialenvironmentrequiringsevenyears
advertising.Thatdoesn’tjustmeanspending
worthofemailtoberetained.Duringthisperiod
moneyonlicences;theseallneedregular
theremaybeuptothreeseparatecycleswith
updatesthatyourstaffmayneedtotest
eachoneinvolvingahardwarepurchaseandthe
andthenstageonproductionservers.Youcan
migrationofanincreasingvolumeofdata,with
avoidthatbyinvestinginexpensivemanaged
eachmigrationintroducingtheriskofdataloss
appliancesthatfilteremailconnectionsatthe
orcorruption.Addinashareofthedatacentre
edgesofyournetwork,thoughagainthismeans
costs–forspace,powerandcooling.You’llfind
payingsubscriptionandmanagementfees,as
thatthesequicklydwarfyourinitialhardware
wellasadditionallicensing.You’llalsoneedto
investment,andthatthey’llvarywithchanges
makesurethatyournetworkisprotectedfrom
inenergyprices.
denialofserviceattacks,toensurethatemail
remainsavailableatalltimes.Themorepoint
Ongoing costs
productsthatareintroducedintoanenvironment,
Thenthereareupgradestosupportnew
themorepotentialthereisformis-configuration
features,installationofsoftwarepatchesand
ordevicefailure.
integrationwithothersystems.Withthelatest
emailserverreleasesyou’regoingtoneedhefty
64-bitmulti-coremachines,withplentyofmemory.
“ voidinganaccumulationofITpointsolutionsisakeydriverforus.Ongoingemail
A
managementpressureswereforcingustoconsiderupgradesandextensionstoour
emailsystems.ByswitchingtoMimecastwehaveachievedouraimsatafractionof
thecostofthealternatives.”
David Peters, Finance Admin Director, Odgers, Ray Berndtson

4. anyDLPrulesthatyouintendtouse.Infact,
Regulations Compliance
integratingmultipletoolswithyouremail
Regulatoryrequirementsaddtothecosts
environmentmeanscarefulplanningsothatthe
associatedwithemail.Messagesneedto
emailserviceisn’tinterruptedbyaninstallation
bearchived,aswellashavingappropriate
oranyproblemsitmightcause.
disclaimersattached.Theregulatoryrules
thatapplywillvaryfrommessagetomessage,
soyou’llalsoneedtoimplementarules-based Cost of support
informationlifecyclemanagement(ILM)policy. Ongoingsubscriptionsandregularupdatesforall
ILMcanbeexpensive,andcanalsorequire thesetoolsaddup.It’salsohardtomanagejust
significantamountsofstoragehardwaretodeal howmanylicencesyou’llneed,andyoucanfind
withtheexplosionofinformationthat’sflowing thatyou’veover-licensed,andthatit’snextto
inandoutofyournetwork.Driversforarchiving impossibletobereimbursedbyyoursuppliers.
gobeyondjustregulatoryrequirements,many Serviceandsupportaddtotheprice,andyou’ll
organizationsareretainingemailsforinternal needtokeeptrackofyoursupportagreements
governanceandlitigationprotection.There’salso withyoursuppliers,aswellasanyservicelevel
theadditionalcostofimplementingthe agreements.Downtimeisexpensive,andthe
appropriatesearchandaudittoolsfore-discovery, wrongsupportcontractorSLAcanproveafalse
orjustforunlockingthebusinessvalueinhistorical economy.Becauseyouprobablywon’tgetall
email.Andthenthere’stheever-increasing thetoolsyouneedfromasinglevendor(leaving
storageyouneedtoputinplace,asthenumber asidethetimeyouspendevaluatingalternatives)
andsizeofmessagesandfileattachmentsjust youhavemultiplepurchaseagreements,multiple
keepongrowing.Attemptingtodiscoveremails licensingschemes,multiplerenewaldatesand
whentheyarestoredas.PSTfilesdistributed ofcoursemultipleinterfaces,configurations,
acrossremoteworker’slaptopscanbeavery policies,reportingtools,patchschedulesand
expensiveandtimeconsumingtask. supportcontactsforyourITteamtodealwith.
Thetimeittakestodealwithtasksthatjustkeep
Protecting company information
thelightsoninITmeansthatmanycompanies
Datalossprevention(DLP)isanadditionalcost
devotethemajorityoftheirITbudgetto
that’sbecomingmoreandmoreimportant,
maintenanceratherthaninnovation.According
notjustforregulatorycompliance,butalsofor
tothelastCIOMagazinesurvey2,fortheaverage
customerconfidence;keybusinessinformation
businessmaintenancetakes60%ofthebudget
needstobeprotected,asdoescustomerdata.
butthebest-performingbusinesseshavereduced
AddingDLPtoanexistingemailsolutionmeans
thattojust35%andplantobringitdownas
investingin,andintegrating,additionalhardware,
lowas20%,freeingupbudgetthatcanbeused
software,andbusinessprocesses.You’llneedto
todevelopITsolutionsthatgivethebusinessa
setasidetimefordevelopingandmaintaining
competitiveadvantage.
DiagRaM 1: COMPlexity Of in-hOuse DiAgRAm 2: mimECASt REPlACES POiNt
EmAil ENviRONmENtS PRODUCtS with A SiNglE SERviCE
CIOMagazine,StateoftheCIO2008
2

5. ForexampleMimecast’sSoftware-as-a-Service
Ofcourse,thecostsofemailaren’tlimitedto
hasalowbarriertoentry,withnoprocurement
theITdepartment.Ifyouhaven’timplemented
costsandfastROIbecauseyougetapplications
toolstomanageregulatorycompliance,then
andservicesthatarereadytorun–andwithall
yourbusinesscouldwellbeleftfacingexpensive
thehardwarerunningatMimecast’sdatacentres
litigation–orhandlingthePRfalloutfroma
there’snoneedtoinvestinhardware,ordata
significantdatalossorsecuritybreach.You’llalso
centrespace.Yousimplyconnectyourexisting
needtomakesurethatyourendusersstay
MSExchangeservertoMimecastthatcantake
productive,andarenotswampedwithspam
aslittleasoneday.
andphishingmessages,strugglingwithawkward
rarely-usedtoolsorwaitingforunresponsive
Awelldesignedcloudservicewillscaleautomatically,
servers(orforbackuptapestobedelivered
givingyoualltheperformanceandstoragethat
andloadedwhentheyneedtoaccessarchived
youneedforyouremailarchives,securityand
messages).Emailisthelifebloodofthemodern
managementandyoudon’tneedtoworryabout
business,anditneedstobekeptflowing–
plannedorunexpecteddowntime.Insteadof
costeffectively.
multiplepointproductsthatduplicatefeatures
orleaveyouunprotectedinsomeareas,
withMimecastyougetasingleservice,asingle
interfaceandunifiedreports.Upgradesand
thE COSt SAviNgS OF updatesaretransparent,andyoudon’tneed
ClOUD SERviCES toemploydedicatedsupportstafffortheservice.
ShiftingtheloadtothecloudmeansyourITteam
canfocusondeliveringthebusinessservicesand
Subscribingtocloud-basedservicescanmake
innovationsyourcompanyneeds,whileyour
quiteadifferencetoyourbottomline.Notonly
SaaSpartnerhandlestheeverydayfunctions.
willyousignificantlyreduceongoingcapital
expenditure,you’llbringdownoperational
Findoutmorewww.mimecast.com
expensesaswell.
There’snoneedtoworryaboutover-licensing,
asyou’llpayaper-usersubscriptionthatcan
adapttothechangingheadcountrequirements
ofyourorganization.Thesubscriptionmodel
meansit’salsoeasiertochargebackservicecosts
tobusinessunits,basedonhowmanyusersare
usingtheservice.
“ imecasteffectivelyreplacesfourdifferentproductsforus.Itwillalsohelpustofinally
M
solvetheproblemofensuringlegitimateemailsaren’tblockedwhilefreeingupourIT
staff’svaluabletimefromsiftingthroughquarantinefolders.”
Jan Durant, head of it, lewis Silkin
“ heincumbentarchivalserverwasoriginallyduetolastforfiveyearsbut–dueto
T
themagnitudeandgrowthofemailtraffic-wehaveoutgrownitinjusttwoyears.
TheMimecastsystemallowsustooffloadallthehassleofcapacityplanningforthe
nexttenyearsofstoragewithoutsacrificinganyofthecontrol;aswecansearch,
retrieveandmanageallemailsfromourdesktop.”
tim hyman, it Director, taylor wessing

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