In the Microsoft arena, we find even a more staggering variety, of course Microsoft own Microsoft Exchange server, Merak Icewarp, Smarter Mail, Imail and lots more. Even within Microsoft, there are open source email software such as Hmailserver and Xmailer.

One thing to note is Microsoft Exchange together with Lotus Notes are better used as a collaboration tool rather than just email alone. They are fantastic as email no doubt but they have far more functions than that.

So, shouldn’t email server hosting be the easiest in Singapore? Well the answer is “No”, Singapore bandwidth is expensive, email hosting have the characteristics of having peak hours and lull periods, but when you buy bandwidth you can’t just buy in such a way, if the peak is 10 mbps, you will need a 10 mbps pipe which is constant, meaning even if the lull period is 1 mbps, you still pay for the 10 mbps. Unlike for USA costs of bandwidth is cheap, they can afford that.

Cost is a factor, second factor is spam and viruses. Singapore has one of the best Internet network in the world, broadband penetration rate is extremely high. But that brings a problem. Most users do not know how to take care of their computers, a lot of computers end up as trojans and bots controlled by hackers who rented them out to spammers to spam. This is one major headache. A second headache is viruses. Basically a rule of thumb calculation shows that our email traffic 80% or more are actually spams and viruses and huge amount of resources need to be put in place so that users do not receive so much spams and viruses.

So if you have all these prevention measures in place, there should be no problem with email servers? Not actually, spam filters are in place, but if you tighten the spam filter too much, you may block valid emails, if you loosen it too much you may let in too much spams. Some users even insisted on having spams saying that they feel bored without seeing many emails inside their mailbox. So it is a constant challenge for email hosting in Singapore. A very tough challenge.