Patent ID: 8805943

Claim:
A method executed at least in part in a computing device for routing an email message to a recipient mailbox server over a network environment, the method comprising: transmitting an email message received at an external mail transport agent (MTA) to a proxy transport server; identifying a store-and-forward (SAF) transport server associated with one or more recipient mailbox servers designated by the email message from one or more candidate SAF transport servers by applying one or more selection parameters for enabling the proxy transport server to select one of the candidate SAF transport servers for routing the email message to, wherein applying one or more selection parameters further comprises: if any of the candidate SAF transport servers are located in a site where the proxy transport server is located, applying a local site selection parameter; and if any of the candidate SAF transport servers are located in a remote site where the proxy transport server is not located, applying a remote site selection parameter; transmitting the email message from the proxy transport server to the identified SAF transport server; transmitting the email message to one or more recipients associated with the identified SAF transport server directly from the identified SAF transport server; identifying another SAF transport server associated with one or more other recipient mailbox servers designated by the email message; and transmitting the email message from the identified SAF transport server to the other identified SAF transport server for delivery to the one or more other recipients.