An overview of cloud email services
If you’re running a business and are trying to start its influence online or simply move the functions online then you definitely need a cloud email service provider. Naturally, if your business has no prior online presence, then you’re going to have a lot of doubts and questions about the cloud-based email services.

So, here is a little guide that helps you out. It outlines a few questions in regards to cloud email services and then explains how you can go about getting the best option for yourself.

What are cloud-based email services?

• We all know what emails are.
• Emails were stored locally before webmail came along. Some popular webmail providers include AOL, Gmail, Yahoo!, Outlook/Hotmail, and so on. These providers allowed us with our emails on their servers, saving up space on our computers and devices.
• A cloud-based email is the next step in the world of emails. It stores all your emails and documents sent and received via email on a cloud server that you or a set group of people can access.

How does a cloud email service help me?

• As a business, there is a lot that cloud email can do for you. In this day and age, it definitely adds to your business’s credibility, helps in expanding your network by connecting your business with others through a web-based server that’s easy-to-use.
• The regular email newsletters allow you to compile and share industry knowledge with all your employees.
• These are just the immediate benefits of having a cloud-based email server, there are a couple of other benefits as well.
• One of the best benefits of a cloud email service is its security, with a small group of people having limited access to sensitive information. Second being the large storage space it offers, which means you won’t have to delete potentially important emails because of a shortage of space.
• Finally, recovery after a potential crisis or disaster is one of the important features of a cloud email service.

What are the options to choose from?

• Whatever your requirements may be, there exists a data server for the same. There are so many options to choose from, coming from all price ranges, and a range of extra features that you may not even know that you need.
• One of the most popular cloud email services is Google Mail for Business. Gmail is only one part of the “Google Apps for Work”. But you get a whole lot more like Google Drive, Google Presentation, Google Docs, and even Google Calendar all for a starting plan of approximately $5 per user per month.
• There are more options like Microsoft Exchange Online, Amazon WorkMail, Yahoo!, Rackspace Email, etc. All with different plans and different costs.
• Microsoft Exchange offers a starting plan for about $4, which provides users with 50 GB of mail storage while allowing them to send up to 150 MB in emails. Amazon WorkMail, for the same cost, offers 50GB of storage per user.
• Yahoo! has one of the best offers. You get 1TB of free storage space for any kind of plan. The price for subscription is about $3.19 for one mailbox, per month. But, for businesses who purchase more than one mailbox, the price comes as low as about $1.59 for 5 mailboxes.
• Rackspace Email is the only one of the lot that offers a migration service, wherein they move all your information from an existing provider to another one. It also has one of the best security services including 3 layers of scanning reserved for just spam and virus protection. Rackspace Email comes at a low cost of approximately $2 per mailbox, per month and another plan for around $3.

What additional criteria should you keep in mind?

• Almost all of these providers allow for free and built-in reporting tools and analytics software, all of these features make for better emailing campaigns and drafting of reports.
• The online and cloud nature of these platforms allow real-time communication between various employees, meaning that they can work together on projects and presentations and share ideas quickly.