Florida Chamber of Commerce Offers E-mail Continuity Service for 2006 Hurricane Season
The Florida Chamber of Commerce announced it will make a free emergency email protection service available to all Florida businesses during the 2006 Hurricane Season. The “Digital Disaster Preparedness” service is available to companies that have an Internet domain name and request the service online–a process that takes less than 10 minutes.
Developed in cooperation with AppRiver, LLC, a FL-based business email security services provider, the “Digital Disaster Preparedness” service will protect and preserve email traffic if businesses’ IT infrastructures are vulnerable to hurricane-related damage.
“If a hurricane threatens server damage or power outages without back-up, this is the perfect system for ensuring the continued flow of email,” said Blake Gehres, Chief Technology Officer, Florida Chamber of Commerce. “Businesses can avoid disruption to their email traffic for the duration of any outages at no cost by taking advantage of this service.”
To access the free service, businesses need only visit the Florida Chamber web site ( http://www.floridachamber.com ) or the AppRiver web site ( http://www.appriver.com ) and click the button marked “Digital Disaster Preparedness.” Users will be guided through a simple process from that point or they can call AppRiver at 1-866-223-4645.
Once a company signs up for the service, AppRiver will monitor that company’s email server activity. If the receiving server is down for any reason, AppRiver will begin queuing the business’ incoming email messages in one of its Tier 1 data centers located in Texas, Virginia, and England until that company’s email servers are fully functioning or the company asks for its email to be redirected elsewhere. Email messages can also be made available online at the user’s request.
“We have seen the effects of lost email on business in our community and around the world and want to offer protection to other companies in Florida that may be especially vulnerable to hurricanes, flooding and other natural disasters,” said Michael Murdoch, CEO of AppRiver.
The service, which also includes free spam and virus filtering, is available from June 1 to October 31.
Founded in 1916, The Florida Chamber is Florida’s largest federation of businesses, chambers of commerce, and associations with more than 137,000 member businesses who represent three million employees in every legislative district in Florida. More than 80 percent of the Chamber’s members are small businesses, reflecting Florida’s strength and spirit.
AppRiver is a privately held provider of business email solutions, including Microsoft Exchange 2003 hosting and spam and virus filtering, with more than 6,000 customers using its managed services and over 25,500 businesses worldwide using its solutions. Founded in 2002, AppRiver is headquartered in Gulf Breeze, FL.