Gartner: Cloud email now viable for enterprises - and for Warwickshire County Council

Cloud email is an increasingly viable alternative to Microsoft Exchange, according to research firm Gartner which predicts increasing tension between Google and Microsoft as a result.

Matthew Cain, research vice president at Gartner, said:

“The road to its enterprise enlightenment has been long and bumpy, but Gmail should now be considered a mainstream cloud email supplier. 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. ”

Google Gmail is the only email system other than Exchange that has prospered in the enterprise market in recent years while the likes of Novell GroupWise and IBM Lotus Notes/Domino have lost market share. All of this is likely to increase tensions between the two vendors, argues Cain:

“The intense competition between Microsoft and Google will make both vendors stronger and enable them to apply cloud expertise to other enterprise cloud endeavours. The rivalry will make it difficult for other suppliers to compete directly in the cloud email and collaboration space. ”

But despite this Gartner recommends that organisations still take a cautious approach to Cloud email. Can advised:

"We believe that, for most organizations, performing one more on-premises upgrade, which will take an organisation through 2014, is the most prudent approach. 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. ”

Even the public sector is embracing the idea of Cloud email with Warwickshire County Council taking the bold step - working closely with the Cabinet Office for support - to pilot use of a Cloud-based email service, Google’s Google Mail.

The body says a move to a Cloud-based email option could include benefits like greater flexibility of working and reduced costs of licences for email and that if it were to make a full move over it could save around £250,000 annually. The project is being positioned as part of the government’s ongoing plans for a G-Cloud and is said to be the first example of a big UK authority providing email services via a public Cloud.

For its part, Warwickshire is characterising the trial as part of ongoing remote working/hot desking initiatives and contribute to property rationalisation moves. In the Warwickshire test case 100 staff are now trialing the system between now and year-end, after which an audit will be conducted. If any decision is made to roll out Google Mail beyond that cohort, nothing will happen until summer 2012 earliest.

Staff on the trial will be playing with Mail on smartphones and tablet devices as well as conventional desktops and laptops and the council wants to see much less use of insecure USBs or storage of sensitive data on staff hard disks out of the pilot.

David Wright, portfolio holder for finance, governance and IT at Warwickshire county council, said:

“By joining the G-Cloud and adopting Google apps, the council will be at the forefront of smarter working among ourselves, our partners and our residents. We are proud of our commitment to act as a pioneer to enable agencies across the public sector to make efficiency savings with their ICT. This programme can be implemented rapidly so we will be improving how we work and making savings quickly. It is an exciting venture with great benefits for staff. We look forward to seeing how it works in practice and how it improves our ways of working. ”

The Cabinet Office is believed to be looking for clues on how key issues like security, service management, information assurance and procurement might come out of the experiment and be applied to wider G-Cloud implementation. Chris Chant, programme director for government Cloud, said:

“This pilot is an important step forward in revolutionising the provision of IT services in government. By exploiting innovations in this manner, government will transform public sector IT estate into one that is agile, cost-effective and environmentally sustainable. ”

Warwickshire currently employs over 15,000 staff, not counting firefighters and teachers, but is looking to slim that figure down by around 12.5% by 2013.