[tvgecpp_link]

Our Email Processing Engine

A Quick Overview

Our email processing infrastructure (Mercury) isn’t a single machine, nor is it a single piece of software. Instead, we have built a system comprising a group of ‘clusters’, groups of multiple machines each with a specific task to perform. It is this system that gives our platform its speed and fault tolerance.
 
How Things Are Organised

Account management is achieved through a simple hierarchy.

You are a VISP (Virtual Internet Service Provider). You will create accounts. Each account consists of at least one mailbox, and optionally aliases and it’s own domains.
 
Accounts

We see an account as ‘something or someone you invoice’. For example, a company you supply or an individual who has an ADSL account with you. Each account must have at least one mailbox associated with it. This is the ‘primary’ mailbox. If you would like a company to be able to administrate it’s users (say by a nominated technical support person), you can give them access to this mailbox and delegate the support overhead to them.
 
Mailboxes

A unique destination for email. These can be accessed by POP3, IMAP and Webmail.
 
Aliases

An email address that ‘maps’ to an existing mailbox. Useful for having multiple email addresses that go to one mailbox or for creating distribution lists.
 
Domains
Each account can have one or more domains uniquely attached to it. In the case of multiple domains, this allows the primary account holder to create mailboxes and aliases using any combination of those domains.