The War of Email Cloud Computing: Google vs. Microsoft

Let the war of email cloud computing begin. A recent InfoWorld article reports Gartner’s predictions for Google’s share growth of the enterprise email market to shoot from 1 percent to 10 percent within a few years. And when it comes to the cloud-based email market, Gmail owns nearly half of the market.

Gartner’s predictions for the cloud email market growth within the overall enterprise email market is an eventual increase from its current 3 to 4 percent market share to 20 percent by 2016, and 55 percent by 2020. With its recent data center investments around the globe, it would appear Google is gearing up for projected growth. Google plans to invest 75 million Euros, or $101 million in a new data center in Dublin, Ireland on 11 acres of land. Just days before, Google announced expansion in Asia plans to build three new data centers located in Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

The expected benefits of using cloud email and applications are significant in cost savings – the U.S. Department of Energy’s conversion of its IT department to Google Apps estimates it will save $40 million in technology expenses over a period of five years. InfoWorld details current organizations already using email cloud computing in the government, automotive and hospitality industries, below:

Google: Reportedly made more than two dozen updates to the platform within the past year, including:

• Security feature: ability to reset a user’s sign-on cookies
• System manageability: ability to manage policy by user groups

But Gartner’s predictions for Google obstacles include:

• Enterprises may reject Google due to needs too complex for the cloud.
• Internal routing, application integration and compliance may be difficult to handle in the cloud.
• Lack of transparency about proprietary code details concerning access control and privileged access
• Lack of transparency about the degree and form of offline backups used in disaster recovery

Microsoft: Plan to upgrade functionality to Exchange in the cloud before adding it to the on-premises version, and they report a great deal of interest from businesses in Office 365, their cloud productivity product.

Microsoft also announced similar plans to expand their data centers in Iowa, Virginia and Dublin, Ireland. But why Dublin for operating cloud data centers? Similar to Michigan, Dublin’s climate is ideal for natural data center cooling, thus cutting costs for power and cooling that normally dominate operation’s budget.

Have concerns about cloud computing security? Read up on the Top 5 Tips for Cloud Computing Security to keep your data safe. Or watch our recent webinar on HIPAA Security and Compliance in the Cloud to understand how to meet compliance and security in virtualized and cloud infrastructure.

Sources:
Gartner: Gmail threatens Microsoft in enterprises
Forecast: Clouds, Social Networks, Email Filters