System and method for disaster recovery and management of an email system

A system for disaster recovery and management of a client email system having a plurality of user accounts, the system comprising:

• a plurality of distributed servers that receive and process email messages transferred to the client email system, the servers including one or more queues for temporarily storing email prior to transferring the email to the client email system;
• a deferral monitor that detects failure of the client email system by determining when queuing of email in the servers exceeds a threshold value;
• and
• a mailbox creation process that, in response to a failure, automatically creates a plurality of mailboxes corresponding to the plurality of user accounts, respectively, wherein email directed to the client email system is routed to the plurality of mailboxes, wherein the created plurality of mailboxes are accessible by plurality of user accounts, respectively, during the failure of the client email system.

A method for disaster recovery and management of a client email system having a plurality of user accounts, comprising:

• routing email messages to one or more servers that receive, process and transfer email messages directed to the client email system;
• detecting a failure of the client email system;
• automatically creating a plurality of mailboxes corresponding to the plurality of user accounts, respectively, in response to detecting a failure in the client email system;
• and
• routing email messages directed to the client email system to the one or more mailboxes until the failure is repaired, wherein the created plurality of mailboxes are accessible by the respective user accounts, respectively, during the failure of the client email system.