The Disadvantages of Outsourcing Microsoft Email

Many companies are striving to take advantage of remote computer services in any way possible these days, and there are certainly many advantages to using the large range of support offered through cloud computing. However, just because the option is out there doesn’t mean it should always be used. There are disadvantages to outsourcing your email support to another organization, and a few of those disadvantages are outlined below.

Privacy Concerns

If you work in any sort of organization where confidential emails are a common occurrence, you need to keep in mind that any email support you receive from a third party comes with the risk of privacy issues. Whether it is from somebody with legitimate access to your computer support center or not, there will always be extra eyes capable of looking at your email if you outsource it. This means that you need to take extra steps to ensure medical information, legal documents, or any other confidential information that might get transmitted via email remains as secure as possible. With organizations that handle sensitive personal data, it may be best to keep all email in-house rather than risk a breach.

Losing Control of your Infrastructure

Using third party email support also means putting your email in the hands of somebody else. While this can mean a lot less stress due to major infrastructure decisions being made by another computer service team, it also means that you are at the mercy of that team’s whims. You lose control over the general infrastructure and security policies of you company’s email. You are also subject to another company’s issues when they arise. For example, if the third party suffers server downtime, you might be left unable to access your company email for a while. Similarly, any hackers or other security issues that the other organization suffers also has the potential to affect your email.

Security Issues

Whether you need to worry about potential security breaches in your email support depends partially on how strong your own company firewall and virus protection software is. If you have state of the art protection, outsourcing your email is actually a potential downgrade, since whatever computer services provider you use will probably have slightly worse protection. Even if the provider has the same level of technology, you are opening up your files to a third party which means that you have a second place that hackers can target. If you do not have the strongest level of security and have legitimate worries about your ability to prevent malware, this is a moot point.

The above advice isn’t meant to paint the picture of email support as something that can’t be trusted. Rather, it outlines the disadvantages that many people are not aware of when they start to discuss outsourcing their email. You should consider all the pros and cons carefully, because the decision you make may determine how effectively you maintain your company, protect your clients, and keep your business running at peak efficiency.

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