Exchange Online Protection overview
Applies to: Exchange Online Protection
Topic Last Modified: 2016-05-26
Microsoft Exchange Online Protection (EOP) is a cloud-
based email filtering service that helps protect your
organization against spam and malware, and includes
features to safeguard your organization from messaging-
policy violations. EOP can simplify the management of
your messaging environment and alleviate many of the
burdens that come with maintaining on-premises
hardware and software.
The following are the primary ways you can use EOP for
messaging protection:
In a standalone scenario EOP provides cloud-
based email protection for your on-premises
Microsoft Exchange Server 2013 environment, legacy
Exchange Server versions, or for any other on-
premises SMTP email solution.
As a part of Microsoft Exchange Online By
default, EOP protects Microsoft Exchange Online
cloud-hosted mailboxes.
In a hybrid deployment EOP can be configured to
protect your messaging environment and control
mail routing when you have a mix of on-premises
and cloud mailboxes.
How EOP works
To understand how EOP works, it helps to see how it
processes incoming email:
An incoming message initially passes through connection
filtering, which checks the sender’s reputation and
inspects the message for malware. The majority of spam
is stopped at this point and deleted by EOP. Messages
continue through policy filtering, where messages are
evaluated against custom transport rules that you create
or enforce from a template. For example, you can have a
rule that sends a notification to a manager when mail
arrives from a specific sender. (Data loss prevention
checks also occur at this point, if you have that feature;
for information about feature availability, see
the Exchange Online Protection Service Description.)
Next, messages pass through content filtering, where
content is checked for terminology or properties common
to spam. A message determined to be spam by the
content filter can be sent to a user’s Junk Email folder or
to the quarantine, among other options, based on your
settings. After a message passes all of these protection
layers successfully, it is delivered to the recipient.
EOP datacenters
EOP runs on a worldwide network of datacenters that are
designed to provide the best availability. For example, if a
datacenter becomes unavailable, email messages are
automatically routed to another datacenter without any
interruption in service. Servers in each datacenter accept
messages on your behalf, providing a layer of separation
between your organization and the Internet, thereby
reducing load on your servers. Through this highly
available network, Microsoft can ensure that email
reaches your organization in a timely manner.
EOP performs load balancing between datacenters but
only within a region. If you’re provisioned in one region all
your messages will be processed using the mail routing
for that region. The following list shows the how regional
mail routing works for the EOP datacenters:
In the America’s, all Exchange Online mailboxes are
located in U.S. datacenters, with the exception of
Brazil where datacenters in Brazil are used. All email
messages, including messages for customers in
Brazil, are routed through U.S. datacenters for EOP
filtering.
In Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA), all
Exchange Online mailboxes are located in EMEA
datacenters, and all messages are routed through
EMEA datacenters for EOP filtering.
In Asia-Pacific (APAC), all Exchange Online mailboxes
are located in APAC datacenters, but messages are
currently routed through EMEA datacenters for EOP
filtering. This is targeted to be changing in the fourth
quarter of 2014, when messages will be routed
through APAC datacenters for EOP filtering.
For the Government Community Cloud (GCC), all
Exchange Online mailboxes are located in U.S.
datacenters and all messages are routed through
U.S. datacenters for EOP filtering.
EOP plans and features
The following are the available EOP subscription plans:
EOP standalone Where EOP protects your on-
premises mailboxes.
EOP features in Exchange Online Where EOP
protects your Exchange Online cloud-hosted
mailboxes.
Exchange Enterprise CAL with Services Where
EOP protects your on-premises mailboxes, like EOP
standalone, and includes data loss prevention (DLP)
and reporting using web services.
For information about requirements, important limits, and
feature availability across all EOP subscription plans, see
the Exchange Online Protection Service Description.
Setting up EOP
Setting up EOP can be simple, especially in the case of a
small organization with a handful of compliance rules.
However, if you have a large organization with multiple
domains, custom compliance rules, or hybrid mail flow,
set up can take more planning and time.
If you’ve already purchased EOP, see Set up your EOP
service to ensure that you complete all the steps
necessary to configure EOP to protect your messaging
environment.
