In today's market Microsoft's Exchange controls the enterprise e-mail market. But according to a recent report from Gartner says Google's Gmail could possibly make a dent in that market share. Gmail has become the most popular consumer email service, but in the enterprise market it only sits with approximately 1%. Although Google does control about one half of the market for cloud based enterprise email which is in its infant stages. Currently cloud based email accounts for only about 3 - 4% of the overall enterprise e-mail market, but Gartner projects exponential growth in this segment. It estimates about a 20% increase by the end of 2016 and 55% by 2020.
Many have tried and few have succeeded -
Many companies have tried to jump into the enterprise market with little or no success. Novell, IBM and Cisco have been losing ground in their collective cloud attempts, but can Google rise to the challenge? The problem with hosting your companies e-mail on Googles servers is.... Google is a data mining company! With that being said, it makes you wonder how many times your emails and documents have been indexed and scanned for usable content?
How many companies will be willing to switch? -
I have a feeling that Google will be fighting an uphill battle on this one. I will provide some examples.
There is a lot of talk on the Internet about Google challenging Microsoft on Office and Exchange. Often I hear things like "It's free! Microsoft is in trouble!!", but Google isn't even close to offering what an enterprise would need. At least for now they don't seem to be trying anyway. I can't stress the importance of the Microsoft server support and administration aspect. A Microsoft environment is more expensive but it has the flexibility to create a structure you want and both locally certified administrators providing in-person support. If you compare that against forcing your business into a cookie-cutter administrative template and not having support, most businesses that I deal with consider G-Mail more expensive.
Many have tried and few have succeeded -
Many companies have tried to jump into the enterprise market with little or no success. Novell, IBM and Cisco have been losing ground in their collective cloud attempts, but can Google rise to the challenge? The problem with hosting your companies e-mail on Googles servers is.... Google is a data mining company! With that being said, it makes you wonder how many times your emails and documents have been indexed and scanned for usable content?
How many companies will be willing to switch? -
I have a feeling that Google will be fighting an uphill battle on this one. I will provide some examples.
- The URL for accessing Gmail (mail.google.com) is blocked by many organizations because they don't want personnel accessing their e-mail while on company time.
- There is now Global Address List functionality. This means that you wouldn't be able to have a single "Marketing Contacts" address book shared by all of your marketing people. The "shared contacts" functionality only really mans that things are shared within your domain.
- Contact sync to mobile devices - at least with the iPhone there is no way to sync a subset of Gmail contacts. Most people don't want all of their email contacts added to their phones address book.
- Having the reassurance of Microsoft Server Support specialists or Public Forums when your company runs into problems?
There is a lot of talk on the Internet about Google challenging Microsoft on Office and Exchange. Often I hear things like "It's free! Microsoft is in trouble!!", but Google isn't even close to offering what an enterprise would need. At least for now they don't seem to be trying anyway. I can't stress the importance of the Microsoft server support and administration aspect. A Microsoft environment is more expensive but it has the flexibility to create a structure you want and both locally certified administrators providing in-person support. If you compare that against forcing your business into a cookie-cutter administrative template and not having support, most businesses that I deal with consider G-Mail more expensive.
Powered by Compendium
Comments for Is Gmail Challenging Microsoft's Exchange for Corporate E-mail?