Competition growing among cloud email suppliers
Competition growing among cloud email suppliers
Suppliers of cloud email services are starting to see an increasing level of competition as more companies enter the market.
In the past, Microsoft's Exchange email service was really the only system to prosper within the enterprise space. However, The Gmail cloud option is now looking increasingly viable, with an increasing number of commercial organisations with 5,000 or more seats signing up.
As a result of its research into the market, Gartner has suggested that Gmail is now a “viable alternative” to the Microsoft service and other competitors. Matthew Cain, research vice-president at Gartner, remarked: “The road to its enterprise enlightenment has been long and bumpy, but Gmail should now be considered a mainstream cloud email supplier.”
The Google cloud email service currently has around one per cent of the enterprise email market but this is close to half of the market for cloud email services, which represent between three and four per cent of the overall market.
However, cloud email is expected to permeate around 20 per cent of the business market by the end of 2016 and over half (55 per cent) of firms by the end of 2020. With the growing popularity of the service firms might want to take advantage of the opportunity to ensure their networks are up to scratch before moving services over to the cloud.
Mr Cain added that cloud email is still maturing but that email itself is “not a commodity”.
“We believe that, for most organisations, performing one more on-premises upgrade, which will take an organisation through 2014, is the most prudent approach,” he added.
Businesses looking to move services into the cloud, should evaluate the performance of their existing network and consider setting up a leased line or MPLS network.
Mr Cain explained, “A less-risky approach to cloud email is via a hybrid deployment, where some mailboxes live in the cloud and some are located on premises. This hybrid model plays to Microsoft's strengths given its vast dominance of the on-premises email market."
