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Ultra IO: Your multitasking messaging superhero

Written by Halon | Apr 26, 2024 8:41:06 AM

If your email campaign needs to be delivered on a high-traffic day like Black Friday, will your important messages get routed right to the inbox? Or will they languish in queues for hours while overloaded inbound email servers decide whether to deliver the messages to the inbox, mark them as spam, or reject them altogether?

Time is indeed valuable as every email awaiting processing is a message your customers can't act on, regardless of whether you are a sender or receiver. Accumulated delays like these not only impact revenue but also lead to extended waiting periods, increased instances of rejected emails, and, ultimately, a negative experience for all parties involved. 

That problem doesn't happen with Halon's Ultra IO. Why? Well, Halon’s Ultra IO component allows systems to function normally for exceptionally large email sends. You can deliver 10,000+ messages simultaneously per server without putting any of them on hold, while running DNS lookups, deliverability checks, spam filtering, or antivirus software.

Ultra IO keeps the messages moving with fewer servers

Ultra IO offers a better messaging experience for both high-volume senders and mailbox providers who want to balance the load from predictable traffic peaks, such as during holiday shopping seasons, or unexpected surges.

For ESPs using Halon Engage: Ultra IO can process high-speed, high-volume email campaigns with fewer deferrals and less latency, which can result when systems are overloaded. Situations like new tenants filling up queues with email to non-existing or slow destinations with lots of timeouts becomes a non-issue, since delivery to those doesn’t disrupt other email flows as the total concurrency is so high. For high-volume senders, that means fewer soft-bounce messages flowing back to outbound email servers, fewer retries, and less cost to send, process, and manage a high-volume email campaign.

Mailbox providers using Halon Protect can handle inbound traffic surges without the usual delays or service meltdowns because Ultra IO can process 10, 000+ concurrent messages at a time per server. Ultra IO also helps protect inbound servers against denial-of-services attacks because the system can process and reject these surges in connection requests more efficiently and without overloading the servers. 

Ultra IO excels in scenarios where traditional process- or thread-based architectures would falter and begin rejecting messages. Even in the heat of a DDoS attack, email recipients wouldn't notice any disruptions. While delivery might take slightly longer - let’s say three seconds instead of one- due to the increased scrutiny from the mailbox provider’s checks and filters, the process remains smooth and uninterrupted.  

Delivery benefits for both: Ultra IO's higher concurrency not only ensures smooth email flow for high-volume senders but also handles large numbers of undeliverable domains without overloading the system. Here's how that could work for an ESP:

A best practice for a sender migrating to a new ESP is to complete a full round of list hygiene to remove problematic email addresses, such as those that are undeliverable or inactive. 

However, this doesn't always happen. A large sender spread across multiple geographies ends up having thousands or even hundreds of thousands of recipient domains. Some of these domains will have connection issues which can choke up the capacity of the MTA. Thanks to Ultra IO's refined concurrency capability, Halon can ensure smooth delivery to accepting domains while effortlessly waiting on slow or non-response destinations to respond.

For senders, experiencing fewer delays due to processing timeouts can improve the user experience and SLA compliance.

Ultra IO - the multitasking superhero

Ultra IO gives Halon users yet another advantage over their competitors, who still rely on legacy email platforms. In essence, Ultra IO is your multitasking superhero, utilizing modern technology that enables servers to swiftly deliver or make key decisions on tens of thousands of email concurrently. Those decisions include whether to route a message to the inbox, banish it to the spam folder, or block it entirely. 

If the inbound server needs more information, such as whether the sender's reputation meets the inbound server's requirements, Ultra IO can queue the message and work on something else while it waits for the necessary data. 

Traditional email platforms are bogged down by outdated architectures, forcing you to throw expensive hardware at the problem just to manage a thousand connections. Halon's UltraIO, built on a modern asynchronous architecture, breaks this barrier. It efficiently handles ten times the connections on the same hardware, ensuring smooth operations even with complex workloads.

For mailbox providers: more concurrency brings greater functionality

When inbound email servers operate more efficiently, it creates opportunities to improve the email experience. This efficiency enables you to enhance your unique selling proposition by incorporating additional functionality into your email service, like a more advanced spam filter, without creating a backlog. You shouldn't ignore latency, but you don't have to worry about it as much. Ultra IO allows you to trade latency for functionality.

Want to find out how you can take advantage of Ultra IO in your email infrastructure? Book a demo with us today!