Archive for the 'IT & eBusiness' Category

Cloud computing

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on 5 August, 2008
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Cloud computing is a familiar cliché. But what does it really mean? What are the benefits and costs? And is it time to jump into the cloud?

An insightful article by InfoWorld brings cloud computing into focus. They define it as “a way to increase capacity or add capabilities” to IT infrastructure, which “encompasses any subscription-based or pay-per-use service that, in real time over the Internet, extends IT’s existing capabilities”.

Think online data backups. Think web-based office, customer relationship management (CRM) and emarketing platforms. Think collaborative online workspaces. Think online image editing. Think remote access to computers a hundred times more powerful than yours. All such services are already in the cloud. And that’s just the beginning.

The key benefit… Cloud computing offers access to increased computing capability and capacity, through cost-effective and scalable online services. The key cost… Cloud computing services are remote and thus beyond our direct control. Its remoteness places the cloud far outside internal IT infrastructure; a fact that raises the important issues of service reliability and data security.

The loss of control over reliability and security vs. the cost-effective, continuous expansion of capacity and capability represents, in simple terms, the cost-benefit equation of cloud computing.

So, let’s further illustrate the benefits…

The cloud provides on-demand access to advanced, powerful computing and software platforms. It creates an online workspace, from which you can communicate, collaborate or work remotely. It offers solutions to a multitude of needs, from mail hosting and security to image processing and storage. The list goes on. And this myriad of cloud services holds the potential to reduce software licensing spend, cut hardware and maintenance costs, and make working lives easier.

Consider the ’software-as-a-service’ platform Salesforce as a case in point. In short, it’s an online CRM platform which offers sales management, marketing automation and customer service and support services. And it offers these services to individuals and global businesses alike. Or… not quite alike… Salesforce is scalable to fit different users’ budgets and needs. That means a small business can enjoy the benefits of the same CRM platform used by global companies, but not pay for features it doesn’t need. As that business grows, the platform can grow too, expanding to provide increased features and capacity. For example, if said business employs its first in-the-field salesperson, they can instantly and cheaply begin using the ‘mobile’ version of Salesforce, accessible via smart phones and internet-enabled devices. Some features also pop along for free, such as the recently announced Google Apps integration, which seamlessly links itself and Salesforce into one single web-interface.

The Salesforce and Google Apps combination is reminiscent of another, competing collection of business productivity services, called Zoho. Zoho offers a whole bunch of services - from CRM, project management and invoicing systems, to a word processor, note taker, organiser, collaborative chat and mail services. Again, these services (some of which are free for up to three users) provide capabilities and capacities that can grow alongside users’ needs.

A third, final and wildly different illustration of the scope and potential of cloud computing is Amazon’s EC2 computing platform, which provides “resizable compute capacity in the cloud”. EC2 lets you create your own virtual computing environment right inside Amazon’s cloud. From there, you can run applications that draw on the raw computing power of EC2’s infrastructure. For example, the New York Times used EC2 to convert scanned images of 11 million newspaper articles into PDF files. They did so in 24 hours; a fraction of the time it would have taken on in-house computers. Again, it’s about increasing capacity and capability.

Now to the thorny issues of reliability and security…

First of all: it’s impossible, and unfair, to make generalisations about the reliability and security of the entire cloud computing industry. A cloud service could theoretically be just as reliable and secure as a similar service running onsite and behind a firewall. Individual cloud services must be evaluated case-by-case, within the context of your distinct IT needs.

In an article entitled “The dangers of cloud computing“, Computer World explores the assertion that decisions about whether to use cloud services to perform IT tasks should focus on whether those tasks are “mission-critical” or “non-mission-critical”. If a task is mission-critical, and a cloud service cannot provide the required level of reliability and security, it should not be used.

As grand as the New York Times’ plan of converting its old articles was - it was not mission-critical. In fact, it was much less mission-critical than the computing tasks millions of users conduct every day in the cloud, such as managing sales leads, following up support requests, communicating with customers and issuing invoices.

These users either don’t know the risks, or they have made professional judgements - to first define if a task is mission-critical or otherwise, and then to decide if cloud computing services are, within that context, reliable and secure enough to complete that task.

Is it time to jump in?

Cloud computing is in its infancy, so it’s wise to be wary about jumping in with two feet. With that said - feature-rich, reliable and secure services are emerging that challenge doubts and increase confidence in the cloud.

The challenge for the cloud computing industry is not so much to offset risks with additional benefits, but to strike a balance between features, reliability and security. If the industry does that, the cloud will succeed.

The challenge for you is much more simple… See through the hype. Look past the benefits, and evaluate the risks too. Then, if you still see value in the cloud, maybe it’s time to take the jump.

Cloud applications and services

We’ve compiled a list of cloud computing applications and services:

Cloud applications and services

Backing up data

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on 5 August, 2008
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Data… A few megabytes of spreadsheets or a terabyte of design assets. If your system crashes, you’ll be lost without it… So back it up.

To piece together a backup strategy, you need to understand the common approaches to backing up, and the strengths and weaknesses of available backup mediums.

Backup approaches

Full backups

A full backup creates a complete copy of an entire system, or a complete copy of selected files and folders. The result: an exact clone of selected data.

During every new full backup the entire data set is copied again, regardless of what data has been added or changed since the previous backup.

A new full backup either overwrites the previous one, or is copied to a distinct location, such as a dated folder. The advantage of the latter approach is that you can roll-back to previous backups if newer ones are corrupted or no longer contain recently deleted files.

Full backups are sometimes preferred because of their cleanliness and simplicity. They are a precise clone of a data set which - unlike other backup methods - don’t rely on specialist software to function. You can take away a full backup, open it on another computer, and access the data instantly.

Restoring data from a full backup is relatively simple. Because it’s an exact copy, you can easily navigate to desired files and folders, restoring individual files on demand. Or, you can simply copy and paste the entire data set back to its original location. Of course, data added or changed since the last full backup will be lost after a restore.

The problem with full backups is they take time. 60GB of data could take an hour or longer to backup, and the process could disturb business operations or force you to schedule backups out-of-hours. Such pressures might prevent you from doing them as frequently as you should, exposing you to the risk of significant data loss.

Incremental backups

Incremental backups begin with a full backup. Once that’s done, only amended or newly created data is subsequently backed up. The result: a full backup plus a collection of new data sets containing new/amended data.

The process requires specialist software, which identifies changed or added data and manages the backup and restore processes automatically. Some incremental backups keep archives of previous versions of amended/changed files so that data can be rolled back to a previous state. The backed up data may not be accessible manually, or accessed on another computer without installing the backup software.

The advantage of incremental backups is they are usually much quicker than full backups. The exact duration of an incremental backup depends on the amount of data added or changed, but typically they will take a fraction of the time needed to conduct a full backup. Some modern backup programmes are also more capable of conducting on-the-fly backups, which means you might not need to halt data activity during backups.

Because incremental backups (and subsequent restores) are dependent on specialist software to function, it’s vital to select reliable and robust backup software. The process of working out what data to restore is a complex task, which in rare cases could fail. Modern software is becoming much better at the task, but it’s important to test programmes thoroughly and have confidence in their reliability.

Note: If you’re unsure about which backup approach to adopt, remember: you can use both independently. To illustrate, you could manage a weekly cycle of full backups on one external hard drive, and implement an incremental backup process on another. If the latter process fails you could revert to the previous full backup… The most important thing is to consider the strengths and weaknesses of each method. If the weaknesses of either approach amount to an unacceptable level of risk, consider how a combination of different approaches could be used. (That said, it’s also easy to overcomplicate things - your backup strategy needs to be robust, but also simple enough that you’ll keep it up.)

Backup Mediums

Tape. Suited for large-scale, ’set-and-forget’ automated backups. Tapes are relatively inexpensive but tape drives are costly and relatively slow. Tapes are durable and compact, so they can be easily moved, stored and archived on or off site.

CD/DVD. Cheap, compact and portable. No moving parts, so when in good condition they are relatively stable. Disk capacities are a fraction of modern hard-drives so full backups may require numerous disks, and the process must be managed manually or with backup software. Because disks may need to be changed they are not ideal for unattended/automated backups.

External hard drive. Modern USB and Firewire drives are fast, reliable, and offer storage in excess of internal drives, making full and incremental backups easy to manage. Their portability means they can be easily transported off-site, but like any hard drive they are sensitive to shock, heat and moisture. Some external hard drives support “RAID” configurations for simultaneous mirror backups over multiple hard drives. Some drives can also be networked. All hard drives contain sensitive moving parts, so external drives are as (if not more) susceptible to failure as internal ones.

Server. Servers can be used as a backup location for data stored on individual computers, or they could be employed as a ’shared drive’ upon which users store their data in the first place, which is then backed up onto another backup medium. They are expensive, but often support advanced features such as “RAID” which allows automatic ‘mirroring’ of data onto another server hard drive, stored on or offsite.

Online ‘cloud’ storage. Online storage can be used as a networked hard drive; meaning you can drag or drop files like an internal/external drive, or use your own automatic backup software. Or, they are designed as proprietary backup services in themselves; usually incremental backups which can be done automatically whenever you are online, at a pre-determined time, or whenever your computer is idle. Capacity is usually modest (at a fraction of a typical internal hard drive) but most services offer increased capacities at a cost. A fast, reliable internet connection is crucial if regularly transferring large amounts of data. As with off line incremental backup services, the reliability of the backup process is paramount to the ability to successfully restore. On top of that, online services must be chosen carefully, considering factors such as: guaranteed ‘uptime’ of service, safety and security of where your data is stored, how quickly restores can be accessed and downloaded.

Piecing together a strategy

Rule number one: the more backups in the chain, the lower the chances of losing everything… Rule number two: using different backup approaches and backup mediums helps minimise the weaknesses of one single approach.

Paranoia can be a good third rule when it comes to backups. And it’s easy to become paranoid when you contemplate losing everything. But worrying too much could lead to obsessive backup processes that are overly costly and time-consuming. It’s therefore important to find a balanced backup strategy that reflects the value of your data (or put another way: the cost of losing your data), but one which is also pragmatic about what you can afford to do, and what you can (realistically) be bothered to do.

When defining a backup strategy remember the following… If your data is invaluable, be bothered… The more backups the better, within reason… If you’re not 100% positive on one approach, consider others ways to crack the egg… All backup mediums - regardless of cost - are prone to failure, so consider the strengths and weaknesses of each and use a combination to reduce overall risk… Always have an off-site backup in case of fire or theft… And finally: settle on a backup strategy that protects your data as far as you reasonably can, but one which is realistic enough for you to keep up.

More info

Check out online data backup and storage services in our list of cloud applications and services.

Hosted email

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There are many hosted email solutions, from those offered by web-hosts to services nurtured by dedicated email providers. They give you email using your website’s own domain name, message storage, a web email interface, and important stuff like email access via your favourite Mac or PC email software. Some are good, others are OK. Few really stand out.

Or at least, that’s what Microsoft, Yahoo! and Google would like you to think. The big three global tech companies are offering hosted email solutions for professionals and small businesses. These services build on technologies developed for their free consumer email services, with a bit more on top.

So, let’s explore the big three’s hosted email services to see what you get…

Microsoft Office Live Small Business / Microsoft Online Services
Office Live Small Business - first year free
Microsoft Online Services - price TBC

In early 2009 Microsoft will launch an integrated collection of business services in the UK called Microsoft Online Services. Until then, you can get 100 email accounts hosted through Microsoft Office Live Small Business Email, free for the first year.

In addition to custom-domain email hosting, Microsoft Office Live Small Business offers website hosting and other online business productivity services such as email marketing and project/document management tools. The service provides basic email functionality, such as cross-platform web email, and supports email, contact and calendar management through Microsoft Outlook.

But the fun really starts next year, with the arrival of Exchange Online, a big part of the upcoming Microsoft Online Services. It’s a fully hosted communications solution based on Microsoft’s world-leading Exchange system, providing email with 99.9% scheduled uptime and technical support. As you’d expect from Exchange, there’s also advanced business features such as built-in continuity and disaster recovery, mobile email and push, and various advanced sync features.

It’s hard to say if and how Office Live Small Business will transform into Microsoft Online Services. For now, the former is a competitive offering at its price (free). In 2009, Microsoft’s hosted email service should get really interesting. One to watch.

Yahoo! Business Email
Around £20 per year for 1 account, £5 per month for 10

Yahoo doesn’t offer hosted email for free, but its paid for options are competitively priced and decently-featured.

Email protection and security is in focus with Yahoo! Mail. Built-in Norton Antivirus protection is standard, and Yahoo! has developed its own technologies - SpamGuard and DomainKeys - to help fight spam. The email front-end has seen extensive re-development in recent years, offering similar functionality to desktop email clients. Yahoo! is also strong on support, with 24-hour access via email and phone.

One big drawback of Yahoo!’s email service is a lack of IMAP email support (supporting only POP). You can download emails using an email client on the PC or Mac, but IMAP is often preferred as a way of keeping messages in sync between client software and server.

Google Mail
Standard edition: free for up to 200 user accounts. Premier edition: £25 per account.

Google’s standard edition offers custom-domain hosted email for free. After a few tweaks to your domain settings you and up to 199 other users can access email via web/mobile interfaces, or via your chosen email client on Mac or PC.

Google puts great effort into policing its email network for spammers and in technologies for filtering spam. As a result the built-in spam filtering is on a par with - if not better than - many paid-for solutions.

Web-integration with other online ‘cloud’ services such as contacts, calendars, Google Documents and Spreadsheets makes the ‘Google Apps’ package a comprehensive offering. And recently, Google began integrating third-party online services too, such as integration with the customer relationship management software Salesforce.

The downside: Like any free service, guaranteed uptime and dedicated technical support are lacking. That’s where the premium edition kicks in.

For £25 per user account, the premier edition makes up for the standard’s shortcomings. It offers a service level agreement with a 99.9% uptime guarantee (though this appears to be only for the email web-interface), online support, and phone support for critical issues.

The premier edition also offers advanced email services from Postini, a specialist email firm Google recently acquired. The ‘policy management’ service offers administrative control over filtering and blocking messages, and configurable spam and virus filters. ‘Message recovery’ lets administrators recover messages deleted in the past 90 days (extendable to 1-10 years for an extra cost).

The verdict

The big three’s email services are feature rich, to be sure. But email is about more than just features. The integrity, reliability and security of such services is crucial to ensure maximum email uptime, reliable and timely receipt and delivery of emails, protection against viruses and malware, and effective email backup and archiving. And with all that, comes the need for support when things go wrong.

Premium, paid-for services are bridging the gap more and more, providing reliable infrastructures, service level agreements, and dedicated support. Google’s acquisition of email security, administration and archive company Postini, and Microsoft’s moves towards Exchange Online, are particularly interesting developments to watch with respect to future advances in reliability and integrity.

An IT manager might wait a while before ditching the internal mail server to outsource email to hosted providers. But for individuals and small businesses, these services are worth a look. In time they’ll improve, and thanks to the increased market competition, other hosted email services should improve too.

Fighting spam

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on 18 July, 2008
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The fight against spam is getting dirtier. Effective detection is key, but these days even that’s not always enough.

Prevention - that is, keeping the spammers from knowing you exist - is an ideal start in the fight against spam. But it’s almost never a viable approach for businesses, where a visible web presence and publication of email addresses are commercial necessities.

Focus must then turn to the task of effectively detecting spam. Stopping it reaching end-users reduces the irritation of spam and cuts down the risk of users unwittingly bringing damaging viruses or malware into corporate networks. Detection is a fundamental priority - from both a user and security perspective.

Detecting spam is about as challenging as preventing it in the first place, but it is more achievable. Many businesses cut spam to nearly nothing by using intelligent spam filters. The process still requires manual intervention to prevent ‘false positives’ (legitimate messages marked as spam) from being lost in the void; but with the right spam filter organisations can master the tricky art.

So what makes a good spam filter? It’s largely about the quality of the underlying technology and the system’s ongoing strategy for outwitting spammers. Most good spam filters are first and foremost dynamic. They continually adapt their approach to keep pace with changes the spammers make to outwit them. Filtering is a constant cat and mouse game, so however complex and robust filtering technologies claim to be today, the key is to ensure it’s backed by continuous development to ensure it stays that way tomorrow.

There are other approaches to beating spam, such as requesting every sender manually validates themselves as a ‘real’ human being before their messages are delivered into your network. But broadly speaking, the selection and regular maintenance of a good spam filter is absolutely the best and most common approach for beating spam.

The new threat

The filter’s in place, it’s working, and you think the job’s done. Then new challenges emerge.

In recent years spammers have turned to using images and file attachments (such as excel or powerpoint files) as means to avoid traditional spam filters that analyse the text content of emails. Spam filters are getting better at stopping such threats, but that’s not where the danger lies.

The problem is: not only is the number of spam messages increasing year on year, their individual file size is increasing too. Spam messages with images and attachments can be over five times the size of traditional text-only spam messages. This trend means that even if spam filters can effectively detect and filter spam, ever increasing volumes - coupled with larger file sizes - are choking email servers and hogging internet bandwidth.

Spam email accounts for around 90 per cent of all emails sent in the world. If that average is mirrored in your organisation, the absolute volumes of spam - and its collective size - could add up to a considerable and ever increasing cost.

Hosted email security services

In response to this new threat, externally hosted email management and security services are emerging in the marketplace, which stop spam email messages from being delivered to a business’s network in the first place.

Such a service provides spam filtering alongside external hosting of quarantined emails. Each product is different, but typically they offer protection from all common types of threat, including traditional spam, phishing, viruses, and denial of service attacks. Many services also offer user-friendly reporting portals for IT departments and end-users to see reports on quarantined emails, and quickly pick out legitimate emails for subsequent delivery.

Because quarantined emails are hosted remotely, the headaches of storage and bandwidth concerns are removed. In addition, the spam filtering technology is updated dynamically and remotely, which means IT departments need no longer worry about maintaining in-house solutions.

Outsourced services won’t be to everyone’s taste, but in a world where spam volumes are increasing every day, it’s one option which places the burden elsewhere. For larger businesses, that primarily means reducing the costs associated with bandwidth and storage. For large and small businesses, it means the task of keeping spam filters up to date is no longer a costly burden on the IT department’s time.

Whatever your view on outsourced services, the fundamental principle of such services is: in the fight against spam, it’s better not to let it get into your network in the first place. That sounds like a sensible approach, possibly even one that might be worth considering.

More info - Top ten tips for avoiding spam at the NCC Principia website

Avoid email overload

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on 25 June, 2008
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Email is a fantastic means of communication. It’s universal, quick and easy; which is why it’s become the favoured place for much of life’s incoming and outgoing information. Email is also a victim of its own success. Sending an email is so easy that these days we often feel like we get too many.

So, how can you avoid the feeling of email overload?

Tame the auto-check

Setting your email to check every few minutes means setting yourself up for a hundred distractions a day. If your auto-check is set to check so frequently, why not try resetting it to check every hour or two?

In addition to minimising distractions, less frequent checking is likely to improve your attentiveness when you do come to check your email. If you check your email every few hours, you can reasonably devote a fair chunk of time to the task so that you can properly read, respond and act on emails.

If you’ve ever sent a hot-headed reply after being interrupted by an email, or perhaps forgotten a bright idea because your email ding sounded, you’ll appreciate the concept of setting aside special ‘email time’.

The best part? The few hours in-between email checks equals distraction free “let’s eat some serious work” time!

Note: If you can’t or don’t want to change your auto-check habits, why not consider turning your email software off every now and again. You might find this approach useful at times when you really need to avoid distractions.

Get yourself a system

A simple system for processing incoming emails will do more to manage your inbox and reduce clutter than anything else. The crucial point: it needs to work for you. That means devising it yourself.

Some swear by the ‘inbox-zero’ approach of acting on, filing or deleting every incoming email until there are none left. That may work for you, but be careful it doesn’t become an obsession.

Others use their inbox as, well, an inbox. The inbox is essentially a to do list - everything that stays in the inbox requires an action, everything else should be deleted or filed away.

Merlin Mann - a popular business writer and speaker - claims it’s all in the verbs. He uses a system for processing incoming emails that’s based on five key verbs: delete, delegate, respond, defer, do. According to Mann, every singe email - without exception - should be vigourously processed using one of the aforementioned actions.

Mann’s verbs work for him, but what’s your system? They crucial point is to define a process, and a set of actions for processing all incoming emails. No stone should be left unturned.

Two become one

An action-based system such as the one described above really does work wonders. The most important thing is to find an approach that works for you. With that said, it’s important not to get too bogged down by the system. That’s why you should take the two tips above and use them together.

Using an action-based processing system in conjunction with fixed-interval email checking means you can periodically stop what you’re doing (the real work bits), get your email sorted efficiently and effectively, and then get back to work.

It’s quick and easy… just like email should be.
business i welcomes your views. Comment on this article and share your thoughts with our readers… What is your top tip for avoiding email overload?

Three good reasons to recycle IT equipment

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on 13 May, 2008
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Recycling may be FREE for consumers of electrical and electronic equipment

Last year we reported on WEEE regulations that make producers of electrical and electronic equipment legally responsible for paying for the treatment and recycling of products at the end of their life.

Producers and distributors of electrical and electronic equipment must by law provide ways for their customers to return waste electrical and electronic equipment. They may do this through direct take-back schemes, for example where they collect waste equipment upon delivery of new equipment, or they can make arrangements with a third-party to do this on their behalf. Either way, the onus is on producers and distributors to make the process transparent for their customers.

Note: Although much of the responsibility for the actual recycling of products falls with producers, business users must obtain and keep proof that waste electrical and electronic equipment was given to an authorised waste-management company.

Recycling IT equipment helps the environment and the people in it

IT equipment often contains hazardous materials including dangerous heavy metals such as mercury. Consigning such items to landfill is not acceptable, environmentally, ethically or legally. This makes the proper disposal of IT equipment that has reached the end of its useful life an important responsibility for all business owners and IT managers.

As well as helping the environment, recycling can aid the people in it too. IT equipment that you no longer have any use for may be valuable to others and an effective recycling policy will see suitable equipment put to good use either in the UK or the developing world.

Since the introduction of WEEE regulations, Brent Council in London has donated 500 PCs, laptops and monitors to Computer Aid International, which arranged for the equipment to be wiped clean of all data, and shipped to Africa, free of charge. In addition to complying with its responsibilities under the law, the council has also found a way to see its equipment re-used in a secure and safe way. An inspiring meeting of responsibility and philanthropy.
 
Not recycling properly may put confidential information in the hands of others

When a computer or server is disposed of improperly it is possible that data held on system hard drives may be recoverable by those with basic IT skills. Deleting data from a hard drive or formatting it does not destroy the data irrecoverably.

Organisations who professionally recycle IT equipment have the technology to render data on hard drives inaccessible - thereby ensuring that confidentiality is maintained and Data Protection regulations are not breached.

Act now

It’s not often that you can help yourself, fulfil your legal and ethical responsibilities, and help others - all at the same time. But these are the benefits of recycling your old IT equipment.

Act now, by finding out more about the WEEE regulations at the Environment Agency website:

Business users of EEE: your responsibilities

Getting things done (GTD method)

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on 21 August, 2007
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Getting things done (GTD) is a work-life management method that stresses the importance of collecting, recording and systematically organising tasks and commitments.

GTD is based on a five-step plan: collect, process, organise, review, do.

First, you need to collect your thoughts, ideas, and anything you need to act on. You can use any collection method you choose, such as a notebook, electronic organiser or computer program. Next, process these items deciding what, if anything, these tasks require you to do. Then, organise and review your collection of tasks regularly to ensure your GTD system remains up to date, adding new items as you go. Your mind will then be free to concentrate on ‘doing’, without the clutter of remembering tasks in your head.

The concept of listing tasks is nothing new. GTD is different because it advocates using different ‘perspectives’ when approaching tasks.

To gain perspective and control, GTD suggests several different ways of sorting your tasks and commitments. If you have many tasks spanning several projects, the ‘next action’ list shows only the next task for each project - a useful perspective when managing several projects concurrently. If you need to concentrate on one project, the ‘project’ list groups tasks by project name. Many more perspectives exist, including the ‘waiting for’ list, which highlights tasks awaiting an external event to occur before you can progress, and the ‘someday/maybe’ list of non urgent tasks.

Viewing tasks from different perspectives is made easier with specialist software. GTD programs let you enter task information into a database, which can be filtered and viewed by perspective, at the click of a button. Another level of control - context - lists tasks by nature, such as email, call, meeting or shopping. So when heading out for the day, you can print a list of ‘meetings’ and ‘shopping’. Ideal if your meetings are in town and you want to pick up your shopping on the way home.

GTD is designed for work-life management, not just work. For business owners - where the lines between work and life are often blurred - GTD could be the time management method of choice.

More info: The Business Link guide Computer Software: the basics offers advice on identifying the business benefits of new software.

Is email stressing you out?

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on 21 August, 2007
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Research undertaken by Glasgow University found that 34 per cent of those surveyed admitted to feeling stressed by the number of emails they receive. In addition, 28 per cent were ‘driven’ to check their email too often because of a perceived pressure to respond quickly.

Though not definitive, the survey suggests email stress may be a negative side effect of the digital age. This situation may worsen too, as more workers are equipped with laptops, smart phones and mobile web connections - making email harder to ignore.

In response to the research, Business Link Business Adviser Peter Weeks said “Email is a powerful and convenient tool, but it can disrupt your productivity. That said, don’t blame the technology. You are responsible for how you manage your time.”

Assigning dedicated blocks of time for checking email, or simply closing your email program every so often, can help divert your attention onto more useful pursuits.

As for reducing the pressure to respond, a balancing act is required if you rely on email for generating or retaining business. Related research commissioned by Fasthosts concluded that businesses who fail to respond quickly to customer emails ‘are losing business’ to more responsive competitors.

Internally, you can define email guidelines through email usage policies, or introduce email productivity training to help employees manage things for themselves. When dealing with customers - if you really do feel the pressure - you need to think carefully about how to most effectively manage expectations, without losing business.

Download guide - Introduce an Internet and email policy