After being in the market for five years, Google’s
enterprise Gmail is building momentum with commercial organizations with more
than 5,000 seats, and it now presents a viable alternative to Microsoft
Exchange Online and other cloud email services, according to Gartner.
“The road to its enterprise enlightenment has been
long and bumpy, but Gmail should now be considered a mainstream cloud email
supplier,” said Matthew Cain, research vice
president at Gartner.
“While Gmail’s enterprise email market
share currently hovers around 1 percent, it has close to half of the market for
enterprise cloud email. While cloud email is still in its infancy, at 3 percent
to 4 percent of the overall enterprise email market, we expect it to be a
growth industry, reaching 20 percent of the market by year-end 2016, and 55
percent by year-end 2020,” Cain added.
Other than Microsoft Exchange, Google Gmail
is the only email system that has prospered in the enterprise space over the
past several years. Other enterprise email providers Novell GroupWise and IBM
Lotus Notes/Domino have lost market momentum, Cisco closed its cloud email
effort and VMware’s Zimbra is only now refocusing on the enterprise space.
Google’s journey to enterprise enlightenment, however, is
not complete. Google focuses on capabilities that will have the broadest market
uptake.
Large organizations with complex email requirements, such
as financial institutions, report that Google is resistant to feature requests
that would be applicable to only a small segment of its customers. Banks, for
example, may require surveillance capabilities that Google is unlikely to build
into Gmail given the limited appeal.
While Google is good at taking direction and input on
front-end features, it is 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.
The intense competition between Microsoft and
Google will make both vendors stronger and enable them to apply cloud expertise
to other enterprise cloud endeavors. The rivalry will make it difficult for
other suppliers to compete directly in the cloud email and collaboration space.
By Telecomlead.com Team
editor@telecomlead.com
