Once upon a time at a NASA space flight center a long way away, I was an e-mail administrator. At the time, the 1980s, e-mail was still chaotic. The RFC 822 standard was only beginning to bring rhyme and reason to e-mail. One of RFC 822's competitors, the Common Messaging Calls (CMC) X.400 standard, wasn't making much progress, but then Microsoft adopted it in 1992, added the concepts of folders to it, and re-named the result Mail Application Programming Interface (MAPI). And, ever since, the e-mail world can broadly be divided into two camps: the RFC 822 Internet compliant e-mail group and the MAPI-compliant Microsoft Outlook/Exchange pack.
Many of us assume that all e-mail works by using such RFC-822isms as e-mail addresses that look like "name@SomePlaceOrTheOther.com." Not so. MAPI takes a quite different approach. In addition to simply handling e-mail, extended MAPI and Collaboration Data Objects (CDO), which became Microsoft's default protocol set in Exchange 2003, added the power to manage calendars and addresses. So it is that Exchange and Outlook, while primarily used for e-mail, is also a groupware package.
And, I might add, a very popular one. A recent survey by Ferris Research revealed that Exchange has about 65 percent market share across all organizations. Lotus Notes/Domino is a distant number two with 10 percent of the market. POP/IMAP, (Post Office Protocol/Internet Message Access Protocol), the usual way incoming RFC-822 mail is handled? All the dozens of RFC-822 mail servers, including Sendmail, Qmail, and Postfix combined, have only 15 percent of the business/organization e-mail market.
As for the open-source groupware servers that try to directly compete with Exchange, such as Scalix, Open-Xchange, and Zimbra, Richi Jennings, a Ferris Research analyst, dismissed them as being mere 'noise' in the business e-mail market.
If you look outside the US, it's a somewhat different story. Sarah Radicati, CEO of The Radicati Group, estimates that in EMEA (Europe, Middle-East and Africa) open-source e-mail servers, lead by Germany-based Tobit have about 10 percent of the business e-mail market. Still, Radicati also estimates that Exchange is the dominant e-mail/groupware server with 37 percent of the world e-mail business market.
In other server areas, open source has made great gains against Microsoft's and the Unix vendors' proprietary programs. You only need mention Apache, Linux and MySQL to see this. Why is it that in business e-mail that while open-source e-mail servers are very popular with Internet service providers, they've been unable to make any substantial gains against Exchange?
One of the reasons is that Microsoft Outlook has been, continues to be, and looks to remain the e-mail client of choice for businesses. While open-source end-user applications in other categories, such as Firefox for the Web browser and OpenOffice for the office suite, have made impressive inroads on Windows desktops, open-source e-mail and groupware clients are still niche products.
Read up on the latest ideas and technologies from companies that sell hardware, software and services. - White PaperYour organisation may well have devised and implemented an Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) some time ago in order to guard against the risks of inappropriate use of computer systems by your workers, but are you confident that your AUP remains 'fit for purpose'? Read on to discover how you can enhance the effectiveness of your AUP.
- White PaperJoin industry expert Martin Tuip to discover best practice strategy for the archival and removal of .PST files using email archiving. Learn how to ensure long-term email records are there when needed, and reduce the risk to your business and clients.
- White PaperDiscover how the integration of disparate technologies in your company can lead to greater user productivity, improved management, lower costs, higher efficiency, and easier risk mitigation.
Discover how SOA can create smarter outcomes for your business.
Attend and learn:
- How SOA is helping leading companies to become more agile
- Where you should be applying SOA processes in your company
- The top SOA implementation mistakes to avoid
Click here for more information.
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CIO Live Podcast #79: Brent D Taylor, author of The Outsider's Edge: The Making of Self-Made Billionaires Part II 05 October, 2007 06:00:00
For his new book, The Outsider's Edge: The Making of Self-Made Billionaires, social researcher Brent D Taylor spent four years of intensive research investigating the psychological make-up and backgrounds of some of the world's richest men and women, including IT luminaries Bill Gates, Larry Ellison and Steve Jobs. Taylor discovered that, despite working in different industries and coming from different upbringings, they all have one thing in common -- they are all outsiders. - +
CIO Live Podcast #78: Brent D Taylor, author of The Outsider's Edge: The Making of Self-Made Billionaires 28 September, 2007 17:34:25
For his new book, The Outsider's Edge: The Making of Self-Made Billionaires, social researcher Brent D Taylor spent four years of intensive research investigating the psychological make-up and backgrounds of some of the world's richest men and women, including IT luminaries Bill Gates, Larry Ellison and Steve Jobs. Taylor discovered that, despite working in different industries and coming from different upbringings, they all have one thing in common -- they are all outsiders. - +
CIO Live Podcast #77: Panasonic Speeds Up Trans-Pacific File Transfers, Part III 21 September, 2007 07:00:00
Part three in our three-part special report from CIO's sister publication Network World in the US, as Paul Desmond reports from the Network World IT Roadmap Conference in Santa Clara, California. With development teams in the US and Japan, Panasonic needed a more efficient way to move very large files between the two locations. Iben Rodriguez, IT consultant for Panasonic Research and Development, explains how a storage-area network and virtual server technology helped speed up WAN performance. - +
CIO Live Podcast #76: Panasonic Speeds Up Trans-Pacific File Transfers, Part II 14 September, 2007 07:00:00
Part two in our three-part special report from CIO's sister publication Network World in the US, as Paul Desmond reports from the Network World IT Roadmap Conference in Santa Clara, California. With development teams in the US and Japan, Panasonic needed a more efficient way to move very large files between the two locations. Iben Rodriguez, IT consultant for Panasonic Research and Development, explains how a storage-area network and virtual server technology helped speed up WAN performance. - +
CIO Live Podcast #75: Panasonic Speeds Up Trans-Pacific File Transfers, Part I 07 September, 2007 07:00:05
Part one in our three-part special report from CIO's sister publication Network World in the US, as Paul Desmond reports from the Network World IT Roadmap Conference in Santa Clara, California. With development teams in the US and Japan, Panasonic needed a more efficient way to move very large files between the two locations. Iben Rodriguez, IT consultant for Panasonic Research and Development, explains how a storage-area network and virtual server technology helped speed up WAN performance.
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SOA What? Why You Need SOA Governance Framework 04 December, 2008 08:32:00
Adopting services oriented architecture (SOA) in your enterprise without thinking through IT governance can cause something like the Gold Rush in the 1800s; extreme rates of growth and minimal law and order which produce unexpected outcomes. - +
The Myth of Cloud Computing 04 December, 2008 08:25:00
Why the rapid spread of virtual technology is becoming a security riskWhy the rapid spread of virtual technology is becoming a security risk. - +
Who Pushed Vendors Toward Better Security? 04 December, 2008 09:38:00
Hint: It had something to do with pressure from customers and government agencies, writes Oracle CSO Mary Ann DavidsonHint: It had something to do with pressure from customers and government agencies, writes Oracle CSO Mary Ann Davidson. - +
CPO & CISO: A Comprehensive Approach to Information 04 December, 2008 08:42:00
GE CPO Nuala O'Connor Kelly advocates greater CPO/CISO cooperation to place the right value on information assets.GE CPO Nuala O'Connor Kelly advocates greater CPO/CISO cooperation to place the right value on information assets. - +
Security Culture: Americans are Ferengis, Europeans are Vulcans 04 December, 2008 08:32:00
Lunch table conversations tell a lot about the culture of security in Europe and the USLunch table conversations tell a lot about the culture of security in Europe and the US.
International researchers gather in Sydney to preview the clever web 05 December, 2008 09:48:00
Borderless corporate networks to shift focus to secure content management in Australia in 2009 04 December, 2008 16:06:00
IDC Says Asia/Pacific Excluding Japan IT Market Will Remain The Bright Spot... 04 December, 2008 15:04:00
MySpot SOS "Panic Button" Smartphone Application could save lone worker lives 04 December, 2008 13:34:00
Charles Sturt University Commences Unified Communications Deployment With Interactive Intelligence 04 December, 2008 08:30:00
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Radicati Market Quadrant 2008 on Corporate Web Security
An Analysis of the Market for Corporate Web Security Solutions, revealing Top Players, Mature Players, Specialists and Trail Blazers. Read on to discover who makes the grade.
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