When your primary mail server goes down, two problems need solving simultaneously. First, inbound messages need to be captured so nothing is lost — that is what StrataMX Backup handles. Second, your users need to keep working, because in most businesses "email is down" is not an acceptable status for hours at a time. StrataMail Continuity solves the second problem — and handles inbound protection at the same time.
Continuity vs. MX Backup: The Key Difference
StrataMX Backup is a passive service: it queues inbound email while your primary server is unavailable and delivers everything on recovery. Users cannot access those queued messages during the outage. They cannot send. Email is preserved but inaccessible until the primary comes back up.
StrataMail Continuity is an active service. The moment your primary server becomes unreachable, users are switched to a live emergency mailbox. They log in through a browser portal with their existing credentials, read new inbound messages, compose and send email normally, and access recent mailbox history. Email keeps flowing — in both directions — throughout the entire outage.
How StrataMail Continuity Works
Infinity Data Center's continuity service maintains a synchronized shadow of your StrataMail environment. Recent message history is continuously replicated to the continuity platform so users have context when they access the emergency mailbox. Inbound mail routing automatically switches to the continuity system when your primary server becomes unreachable — the failover is triggered without any manual intervention from your IT team.
Users access the emergency mailbox through a browser portal using their standard StrataMail credentials. No software installation, no VPN, no special configuration on their devices. The portal works from any browser on any device — desktop, laptop, tablet, or phone.
What Users Experience During an Outage
In a well-configured continuity deployment, most users do not immediately realize there is a primary server outage. New inbound messages continue arriving in the emergency mailbox. Sent messages are delivered normally to recipients. A recent snapshot of mailbox history — typically 30 days — is available for reference.
Users who rely exclusively on a desktop client like Outlook will notice the transition to the browser portal. Users who regularly use webmail or mobile access experience the continuity portal as largely seamless. In all cases, the critical business function — the ability to communicate by email — is uninterrupted.
Message Sync on Recovery
When your primary StrataMail server comes back online, Infinity Data Center's continuity system handles the reconnection and message synchronization automatically. Messages sent and received during the continuity period are synchronized back to primary mailboxes in chronological order. Users return to their normal client and see a complete, unbroken record of all activity during the outage — no gaps, no missing messages, no duplicates.
Automatic Activation — No IT Action Required
One of StrataMail Continuity's most important features is that it activates automatically. When your primary server becomes unreachable, the continuity service detects this and begins routing inbound mail and enabling the user portal — without requiring your IT team to flip a switch, log in to a control panel, or notify users. By the time your team is aware there is an outage and beginning to investigate, continuity is already running and your users are already working.
Who Benefits Most
- Customer-facing teams — sales, support, account management — where email downtime directly delays customer response
- Organizations running on-premise mail servers — where hardware failures and maintenance windows create meaningful downtime risk
- Businesses with SLAs or contractual email availability requirements — where demonstrable uptime matters beyond internal operations
- Professional services firms — law, accounting, consulting — where email is the primary client communication channel
- Any organization that has experienced an email outage and cannot afford a repeat
StrataMail Continuity is available as an add-on to any StrataMail account — Shared, VPS, or Dedicated. Contact Infinity Data Center or call 866.790.4678 to add Continuity to your account.