A disturbingly large portion of the business world still uses antiquated email technology.
Email may seem like it has not changed in over 30 years; however, there have been leaps and bounds in not only functionality and security but also ease of use.
POP (Post office protocol) mail downloads your email to your local PC, it does not synchronise across your devices readily, uses insecure connections which are susceptible to being hacked and passwords intercepted, in most instances, there are NO backups. If your PC dies, your historical email goes with it, as only the most recent emails are stored on a server.
IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol) is a slight improvement over POP as it allows syncing mail across devices and stores your mail on the server in case of device failure. However, you still cannot sync contacts, calendars or sent items, in most instances, there are NO backups, a loss of server will result in a loss of mail across ALL devices.
By the mid-2000s, Microsoft Exchange was gaining popularity in the business world. It allowed full synchronisation for mail, contacts, calendars, notes and sent items – across various devices. In most cases backups DID exist, however both the mail servers and backups were very expensive to deploy and maintain.
Google Mail (Gmail) revolutionised what webmail could be, introducing the concept to the general public and over time, opened the door for mainstream acceptance of cloud-based services.
Microsoft has improved upon this over the years and has now made enterprise quality exchange email available on the cloud, this takes all the cost of infrastructure off the end user and makes enterprise level email systems available to everyone at very affordable prices.
With Microsoft 365, security and resiliency are front & centre. Data encryption is switched ON by default, Multi-Factor Authentication is easy to switch on and operate & there is very good built-in anti-spam, anti-phishing and anti-hacking functionality.
The ability to sign in from any device that has an internet connection and access your mail and data grants you the ability to pick up and keep running even in cases of power or internet outages in your office – all without the sometimes annoying or complicated setup processes involved in configuring POP or IMAP connections.
Microsoft 365 also allows you to bundle your licensing for Microsoft & Windows into the single sign in and keep you up to date at all times, rather than purchasing the latest Microsoft or Windows suite every few years.
