So You Want to Run Your MTA in the Cloud?
Russell Fletcher
helps solopreneurs & small businesses grow by expertly managing their digital marketing programs.
Introduction
In today's digital world, #email is an essential communication tool for businesses of all sizes. However, sending high volumes of email can be challenging, especially if you are not using the right infrastructure.
In fact, there several factors that high-volume email senders need to consider when installing MTA software within a Cloud-based hardware like Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure or Google Cloud Platform (GCP). This article touches on the most important considerations, such as:
Choosing the Right Cloud Provider
The first step is to choose the right cloud provider. There are a number of factors to consider, such as:
Some of the most popular cloud providers for high-volume email senders include Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform (GCP).
AWS offers a wide range of services, including compute, storage, networking, and databases. It also offers a number of features that are specifically designed for high-volume email senders, such as dedicated IP addresses and high-throughput connections.
Azure is another popular choice for high-volume email senders. It offers a similar range of services to AWS, as well as a number of features that are specifically designed for email, such as spam filtering and content filtering.
GCP is a good option for high-volume email senders who are looking for a more affordable option. It offers a wide range of services, but it may not have as many features as AWS or Azure. It also poses some challenges when wanting to use multiple public IP addresses per virtual machine for your sending.
Selecting the Right MTA Software
Once you have chosen a cloud provider, you need to select the right MTA software. There are a number of MTAs available, both open source and commercial. I might be a little biased about the latter category...lol.
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Some of the most popular open source MTAs include Postfix, Sendmail, and Qmail. These MTAs are free to use and these are capable of handling a low six-figure sending volume per hour. However, they are more complex to configure and manage. You'll likely need to hire an experienced pro (maybe like Keith Kouzmanoff ... hint, hint) for this.
Some of the most popular commercial MTAs include GreenArrow Engine MTA, Halon, and a duo of MessageBird products: PowerMTA & Momentum. These MTAs are more expensive than open source options, but they are also easier to configure and manage. They will actually save your team a lot in terms of soft costs. They also offer a wider range of features and should be continually updated.
The best MTA for you will depend on your specific needs and requirements. If you are a small business with a limited budget, an open source MTA may be a good option. If you are a large enterprise with complex performance, security & control requirements, a commercial MTA is the more sensible choice.
Configuring the MTA for High Volume
Once you have selected an MTA, there are a number of general best practices that you should follow, such as:
Monitoring and Managing the MTA
Once the MTA is up and running, you need to monitor and manage it to ensure that it is performing as expected. This includes monitoring the MTA's CPU usage, memory usage, and network traffic.
You should also monitor the MTA's delivery, deferral, bounce & complaint rates. If you see any problems, your engineers will need to take corrective action immediately.
The aforementioned commercial MTAs should have some built-in functionality for this. To help with your open source server(s), some of the most popular monitoring tools include Nagios, Zabbix, and Munin.
Conclusion
Before you sacrifice your email program's profitability by spending margin on external delivery services, it will be worth looking at implementing your own MTA server(s). This will reduce your email sending costs and the tuning capabilities of Cloud-based hardware gives you a lot of deployment flexibility to scale upwards during peak sending periods and to power capacity down when traffic is lighter.
Good luck and don't hesitate to DM me if I can do anything to help!