One of the more popular software-as-a-service (SaaS) options is email. Many organizations, large and small, have moved their email to the cloud, and many more are considering such a migration. There are both business and technical concerns to take into account when making this decision.

Largely, from a technical perspective, it’s an easy decision. The fact of the matter is that most of the major SaaS email vendors can run email infrastructure better than virtually any business or government agency. The SaaS vendors have the right hardware, the right software and, more important, the right people.

This leaves the major technological concern to be one of connectivity. If your email server is in your office, all you have to do is make sure the wire that runs from your computer to the server is intact. Or, in the case of a wireless network, you need to make sure that is up and running.

In a SaaS model, your connection to your mail server is over the Internet, so you need to make sure that is robust. Oftentimes we see even smaller organizations putting in redundant, high-speed connections to ensure that they don’t lose connection to their mail server.

Another technical concern is the migration process from your existing terrestrial email to the cloud. While the major providers have tried to make the migration process easier, it still requires a reasonable amount of planning and coordination. This is especially true for organizations that have come to rely upon their email on a 24/7 basis.

Also, the organization needs to decide what it wants to do with its old email. If you want it to be accessible in the cloud, the migration is decidedly more complex and costly than just leaving it where it is. The trade-off is that if you leave it where it is, then you are still reliant on your old email infrastructure until such time that you don’t need your old email, which could be years.

From a business perspective, the Service Level Agreement needs to be closely examined. An SLA defines the services to be provided by the vendor, and the associated levels of availability, response and maintenance associated with these services. The biggest concern in an SLA is typically with availability, or the percentage of time that a system must be accessible and usable. Of course, the higher the “uptime” commitment, the more expensive the service will be.

The other key business consideration is the exit path. All the major providers define the manner in which you can terminate the service. This includes the manner in which you can retrieve your email upon termination. This exit is not easy, so be sure what you’re getting into before you take the jump.

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John Agsalud is an IT expert with more than 25 years of information technology experience in Hawaii and around the world. Reach him at johnagsalud@yahoo.com.