Sometimes in the world of IT or information technology names seem to have little to do with the actual program, hardware or technology. In the case on an email load balancer this is really not the case. It is a service that allows you to actually control or manage the flow of emails, either inbound or outbound, to increase and improve the reliability and speed of delivery of all emails on the system.
Who Needs an Email Load Balancer?
Although many businesses employ an email load balancer it is really only necessary, in most situations, when you are sending out large quantities of email or receiving large quantities of emails. In the case of companies that manage transactional or dedicated SMTP servers and sell programs to customers to handle outgoing email an email load balancer is a must. It is also critical for anyone that is handling large listserv or other types of programs or systems where there can be heavy email use over specific periods of time.
If you are considering using a bulk mail service or are buying dedicated or transactional SMTP service package talk to the company about how they ensure that your emails will get delivered. If they are tracking and offer full optimal delivery they are most definitely using an email load balancer.
How It Works
An email load balancer takes a look at all the outgoing email and determines which type of big email handling system, in most cases a mail submission agent or MSA, rather than to a specific email address, is best to handle the volume of mail. In most cases there are actually multiple MSAs that are going to take care of outgoing mail across the system. Not only does an email load balancer automatically direct outgoing mail to the appropriate MSA but it also handles problems.
In the even that a MSA fails the email load balancer recognizes this failure and automatically switches to other MSA systems. This way your email is delivered quickly and without fail even if there is an internal issue on a MSA.
Using an email load balancer isn’t something that every company or organization will need to consider. However, if you have transactional email or send out bulk email it is well with the consideration.
