There are currently over 225 million individuals using Office 365. According to the company’s latest earnings call (April 2020), Microsoft continues to add nearly 3.5 million Office 365 users per month, and we’ll likely continue to see this number climb as more businesses expand their work-from-home force. Most of us are familiar with why Office 365 has become so popular, quite frankly, it’s just easier. The elimination of hardware cut out excess oversight and maintenance costs. A variety of per-user subscription models with optional add-on features allow businesses to tailor their Office 365 deployments to their specific business needs. The addition of SharePoint and OneDrive simplifies user collaboration, allowing users to work together, even from home.

What does this mean for email security? As more organizations make the move to cloud-hosted email, many are also considering cloud email security deployments as well. Cloud email security can not only optimize email protection for those using Office 365 (or other cloud email providers) but offers additional benefits for organizations that are still using Exchange on premises.

Benefits of cloud email security

1. Faster deployment and system updates

SaaS solutions are quick to set up, and that receive continuous software and security updates with zero downtime. Migrating from an on-premises email security solution, like Barracuda Email Security Gateway, is a quick and easy two-step process. Barracuda has migrated hundreds of Email Security Gateway customers to Barracuda Essentials cloud email security, and most are up-and running in under an hour, with no lapse in security.

2. Refocus IT resources

No hardware to maintain means that you can refocus IT teams on more strategic initiatives like user awareness training and proactive threat hunting.

3. No hidden costs

SaaS solutions are typically priced per-user with predictable monthly or yearly payments. Because there is no hardware, there will be no additional infrastructure investment or unplanned maintenance fees.

4. Easy to scale

Per-user licensing means that as your business grows, you can add users as needed. Because there’s no hardware to upgrade, adding users to your email security plan won’t cause additional strain on your IT resources.

5. Streamline traffic flow

If you’ve migrated or plan to migrate to a cloud-hosted email provider, it just doesn’t make much sense to push your inbound and outbound SMTP traffic down to an on-premises security solution. Keep your email in the cloud and reduce any potential latency or unnecessary strain on your network firewall.

6. Stay compliant

Some SaaS email security solutions will also provide features that help companies achieve compliance. Barracuda Essentials offers unlimited cloud archiving with powerful eDiscovery as well as a full continuity service to keep your business up and running at all times.

7. Access advanced email security

As cloud email security grows in popularity, security vendors are investing more in cloud security innovation, resulting in advanced cloud email security features. With Barracuda Essentials specifically, you benefit from advanced filtering capabilities and CPU emulation sandboxing. Office 365 users can explore Barracuda Sentinel, which provides API-based inbox defense for added protection against the 13 email threat types.

Organizations that have migrated or are planning to migrate to cloud email are looking to free up IT resources, experiencing rapid growth, or looking for better protection against advanced threats.