System and method for re-routing messaging traffic to external resources

1. A method of re-routing mail traffic exchanged with a messaging system in a data transmission system in which at least one user connected to an Internet Protocol (IP) transport network can transmit requests to and receive data from a plurality of servers through a load balancer, at least one of the servers being a mail server in charge of mail exchange with the user through the IP transport network;

the method comprising the steps of:

providing a dynamic workload (DW) device that, when a decision of re-routing the mail traffic is made by an event A, is configured to:

forward a mail routing context to an external service infrastructure partner (SIP) device when the system is triggered, the routing context comprising a list of domain names to be supported, and a list of IP addresses to be supported, and a list of distribution lists to be expanded,

reconfigure the load balancer in order to be able to send a mail protocol to the SIP device when receiving the mail traffic to be re-routed to the SIP device,

forward a mail user context to the SIP device, the user context including a list of login names and passwords for each user and a user list of Auto-forward/Auto-copy set-up, and

inform the messaging system that the mail traffic has been re-routed and that associated resources of the messaging system that were used for mail exchange can be used for other services,

wherein the routing context and user context provide all required data for ensuring mail exchange using the SIP in a manner that is completely transparent to users of the messaging system as soon it is decided to re-route the mail traffic to the SIP.

2. Method according to claim 1 , wherein the decision of re-routing the mail traffic is taken when the DW device is triggered by the event A.

3. Method according to claim 2 , wherein the event A is a manual action from an operator when priority has to be given to other services or an automatic action based on technical or business rules.

4. Method according to claim 2 , wherein the system comes back to its original situation when the DW device is triggered by an event B.

5. Method according to claim 4 , wherein the DW device takes the following actions when receiving the event B:

informing the SIP device to stop modifying user information and to forward back the user information;

sending the user information to the messaging system;

reconfiguring the load balancer so that the mail traffic is no longer re-routed;

requesting from the SIP device the user context and all read messages from a last update and all new messages per user; and

forwarding the user context to the messaging system in order to re-install it therein.