Is email continuity the same as email backup?
Email backup keeps a separate copy of messages for retrieval or recovery. Email continuity addresses a different question: how does your team communicate while its usual inbox is unavailable? A backup alone does not necessarily provide an alternative inbox or a way to send and receive new mail.
Business email disaster recovery includes what happens afterwards: restoring access, reconciling messages and checking that important conversations are accounted for. A useful plan considers all three needs.
What should a small business prepare?
Start with the conversations your business cannot afford to lose track of. That might be customer enquiries, time-sensitive orders, appointments or instructions from suppliers. Decide who needs access and how they will reach it without relying on their usual inbox.
- Keep a separate route to sign in and contact your team.
- Decide which mailboxes and older messages need protection.
- Agree who will check provider status and tell staff what to do.
- Test the access and recovery process before an outage.
How will Continuity help?
Continuity is planned for small teams using Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace. The approach is to retain incoming email independently and provide a Continuity inbox for reading available messages, receiving new mail and sending replies during an outage.
After the provider recovers, the aim is to resume normal synchronisation and show which messages have been copied back. Access to older messages and the recovery process will depend on provider support and setup. Early access invitations, supported configurations and pricing will be shared before you decide whether to subscribe.
What can an independent inbox not solve?
Your team still needs a working internet connection and a way to sign in. Recipient email systems can also be unavailable. Continuity needs to be configured before an incident; joining a waitlist during an outage cannot recover messages that were never backed up.
Keep alternative contact details for urgent situations. An email continuity plan works best as one part of a broader business continuity plan.
| Part of the plan | The question it answers |
|---|---|
| Email backup | Do we have a separate copy of our messages? |
| Email continuity | Can we keep communicating during an outage? |
| Email recovery | How do we return to normal and account for messages? |
Common questions
Who needs email continuity?
Businesses that depend on email for customer enquiries, orders, appointments or day-to-day operations can benefit from a continuity plan. Small teams without dedicated IT staff need a process that is straightforward to set up and use.
Do we need to change email addresses?
The planned Continuity service is designed to work alongside your existing provider and business email addresses. It is not intended to replace Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace.
Can I start using Continuity today?
Early access is not open yet. Join the waitlist and we’ll contact you when invitations are available. There is no payment or subscription commitment.