E-Mail Service Outage

We often don't realize how critical e-mail is, until we lose access

Last night, many users lost access to Gmail, the popular e-mail service offered by Google. According to Google, the problem is now fixed, but it is unclear what gave rise to the problem and if it will recur (this is not the first service outage for Gmail.)

For small businesses, redundancy is critical and as Gmail is free, it makes sense to use another free email service to send out important messages when the primary service is disrupted. I would be more likely to use such a free service as my secondary channel of communication, since many services will block such messages as likely spam. And then, of course, I have a third free e-mail service, as contingency for contingency!