Migrating Email to the Cloud

Migrating Email to the Cloud – How Financial Institutions Can Leverage Microsoft O365 for Efficient Business Email

Migrating Email to the Cloud

Many financial institutions are finding the Cloud to be very appealing for their business objectives. Migrating server workloads and applications to the cloud provides many benefits for banks and credit unions alike, but it can also seem overwhelming to some who are introducing cloud services to their organizations for the first time. Today, many banks and credit unions are taking the first step of moving or looking to move their email hosting services to the cloud. Traditionally, email services have been hosted on-premises, but now financial institutions can take advantage of hosted email solutions to simplify email management and make processes more efficient for the entire organization.

Cloud hosted solutions, such as Microsoft O365, can dramatically simplify business email management by eliminating the need for manual intervention and management which enables the IT staff to focus on more revenue-generating tasks. In addition, the experience for end-users is essentially the same, creating a seamless transition for the institution.

In addition to increased efficiencies, there are other key advantages of moving email to the cloud such as:

  • A secure email environment – the cloud is a secure environment for data storage.
  • Reduced costs – there is no need to purchase and maintain costly servers.
  • Reduced manual intervention – with cloud solutions, bank staff no longer needs to manage the email network including email migrations, upgrades, backups, and general maintenance.
  • High reliability and availability – cloud-based solutions have redundant systems to ensure email services are consistent and run properly every day.
  • Built-in backups and archiving – cloud-based solutions automatically perform backups and archive tasks. The backups are also stored off-site, which is an important aspect of any disaster recovery plan.
  • Ability to access email from anywherecloud-based email solutions can always be accessed, from any location, using any device, improving the productivity of employees.

Not all cloud-based email solutions are created equal

Financial institutions require an industry-specific email solution that adheres to strict cybersecurity regulations to remain in compliance with regulatory guidance and expectations.

In addition, community banks and credit unions place increased importance on the availability, uptime and security of their email solutions. Some aspects of a cloud-based email solution that banks and credit unions should consider include:

  • Ability to meet strict cybersecurity regulations
  • Can create customized reports for regulators (e.g., compliance, user, and encryption)
  • Reliable up-time and redundancy
  • Unique layers of security, SPAM filtering, antivirus, and on-demand encryption
  • Multifactor authentication

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