Critical.
Authoritative.
Strategic.
Subscribe to CIO Magazine »

Gmail dominates Cloud email in the enterprise

Analyst firm, Gartner, predicts Cloud email adoption to reach 20 per cent by 2016

The battle for enterprise Cloud email accounts could heat up in the future, according to analyst firm Gartner, with Google's Gmail offering grabbing 50 per cent share of the global market.

Currently, Cloud email has a 4 per cent share of the overall enterprise email market but a new report entitled Google Gmail emerges as a significant threat to Microsoft in the enterprise predicts that this share will reaching 20 per cent of the market by 2016, and 55 per cent in 2020.

Gartner US research vice president, Matthew Cain, said in a statement that while Gmail's enterprise email market share was only 1 per cent, it had close to half of the market for enterprise Cloud email. “Other than Microsoft Exchange, Google Gmail is the only email system that has prospered in the enterprise market over the past several years,” he said.

According to Cain, rival enterprise email offerings Novell GroupWise and IBM Lotus Notes/Domino have lost market share, while Cisco has closed its Cloud email service and VMware's Zimbra was refocusing on the enterprise space. However, Gmail could face adoption problems from companies with complex email requirements. “Financial institutions report that Google is resistant to feature requests that would be applicable to only a small segment of its customers," Cain said. "Banks, for example, may require surveillance capabilities that Google is unlikely to build into Gmail given the limited appeal.” He also claimed that Google was good at taking direction and input on front-end features, but was more resistant to the back-end feature requests that are important to larger enterprises.

“Large system integrators and enterprises report that Google's lack of transparency in areas such as continuity, security and compliance can thwart deeper relationships,” he said. “Gartner believes that, for most organisations, performing one more on-premises upgrade, which will take an organisation through 2014, is the most prudent approach,” he said. A good approach for Cloud email adoption was via a hybrid deployment, where some mailboxes were stored in the Cloud and some kept on premise.

Follow Hamish Barwick on Twitter: @HamishBarwick

Follow Computerworld Australia on Twitter: @ComputerworldAU

Recommended

  1. Think Tank: Managing the talent pool

  2. Supply chain management in Australia - Part 1

  3. From CMO to CEO: Anametrix’s Pelin Thorogood

    CMO

Join the CIO Australia group on LinkedIn. The group is open to CIOs, IT Directors, COOs, CTOs and senior IT managers.

More about: Cisco, Gartner, Google, IBM, IBM Australia, Microsoft, Novell, VMware, Zimbra
References show all
Comments are now closed.
Related Coverage
Related Whitepapers
Latest Stories
Community Comments
Tags: email, cloud computing
Latest Blog Posts
Whitepapers
  • Detecting APT Activity with Network Traffic Analysis
    Today’s successful targeted attacks use a combination of social engineering, malware, and backdoor activities. This research paper will discuss how advanced detection techniques can be used to identify malware command-and control (C&C) communications related to these attacks, illustrating how even the most high-profile and successful attacks of the past few years could have been discovered.
    Learn more »
  • Endpoint Security and Virtualisation
    Besides form factor, virtual systems are not really that different than physical systems. They both use the same operating systems and applications. They both present users with computing resources such as RAM and hard drives. Consequently, the ability to exploit vulnerabilities in a physical environment will present a significant threat to virtualised environments as well. This paper examines the different endpoint security methods for virtualised environments and presents how Endpoint Protection security provides optimal performance, protection and manageability.
    Learn more »
  • NetApp FAS6240 Clustered SAN Champion of Champions
    Storage systems today must match agility with diversified I/O performance to satisfy an enterprise’s changing needs. In their review, Silverton Consulting ranks the NetApp FAS6240 Clustered SAN, as an Enterprise OLTP “Champion of Champions.” Read the results of their benchmark testing and the features that impressed them the most.
    Learn more »
All whitepapers
rhs_login_lockGet exclusive access to Invitation only events CIO, reports & analysis.
Recent comments