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Changes to our Anti-spam Service |
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Good-bye Ironport, Hello GFI
The following message will impact all Live Oak Hosting customers who utilize our Ironport anti-spam filtering service.
Live Oak Hosting is in the process of migrating to a new anti-spam service for our customers. While we know that any change to email service can potentially be scary, we're doing everything we can to alleviate any fears or concerns. We have been working on the migration planning and process for several weeks and are in the final days of preparing for the migration. While we realize that this is late notice for some of you, we wanted to make sure that we were full speed ahead with the new system before we sent an official announcement.
The Transition
By noon on Thursday, May 27th, all email should be flowing through the new system. Outbound email will be transitioned over the next few days, ahead of inbound filtering. This allows us to scale up the deployment and identify potential issues ahead of inbound filtering. We are doing our best to make this a completely seamless transition. Updates to the progress may be tracked at http://help.liveoakhosting.com/status
The Benefits
The new system will provide several benefits that our customers have been requesting for years.
- individual whitelist/blacklist management per mailbox (or domain)
- self-service access to manage all settings (no need to call us unless you want to)
- integration with hosting control panels for synchronization
- organization-level controls to let your local tech guru access and manage your settings
- more robust infrastructure to avoid system overload
The Impact
If Live Oak hosts your DNS settings for your email, we'll take care of all of your settings and will manage every aspect of the transition. If you manage your own DNS, you will want to update your DNS settings before Thursday morning, May 27th. We will be contacting you directly with the necessary information - but only if you need to make a change. If we can do it for you, we will. If your DNS settings do not get converted in time, you will not lose any email. You may see an increase in spam until the settings are changed, but no other impact should be experienced.
Questions & Help
Please refer to our new knowledgebase at http://help.liveoakhosting.com for general questions or to post new questions. If you have concerns or issues specifically related to your account, please email us at support@liveoakhosting.com.
Why the Change
There are two primary reasons: First, Cisco, who purchased Ironport about 18 months ago, is forcing all models of their equipment that we are operating to be terminated from service this year. In addition, their pricing structure dramatically changed to focus exclusively on enterprise-level clients, and quite frankly, became cost prohibitive for us to operate. Secondly, and most importantly, when we evaluated replacing our hardware at greater cost without a benefit to our customers, it just didn't make sense. Although the new service will be more expensive for Live Oak Hosting, we will maintain the same customer pricing and deliver a much greater level of service and benefits to our customers. That feels much better to us - and hopefully for you too.
In Summary
We're doing our absolute best to make sure this transition is completely seamless and near-invisible to all of our clients. You'll notice some changes in the next couple of weeks such as a new look to our quarantine reports, more features, and increased control over your email experience. Monitor our status and ask general questions at help.liveoakhosting.com or email us directly at support@liveoakhosting.com.
