Looking at Email as a Service

Enterprise messaging has evolved from the green-screen experience of applications in the 1980s to the newest generation of email: Messaging delivered as a service. But because technology generations overlap each other, deciding which messaging option or combination of options to use can be more complicated than meets the eye. Let’s look at the newest generation, known as hosted email or email as a service, and the ways your existing email deployment could evolve, plus what you need to consider as you chart your company’s messaging plan for the future.

Three Messaging Options
Options for enterprise messaging are evolving as new computing paradigms appear. If we take a five-year view from today, three major options appear that are viable alternatives:

1. Use inhouse email based on a platform such as Microsoft Exchange or IBM Lotus Notes.
2. Use email as a service, where the email service provider delivers all the necessary compute power, storage, and application logic via the web (sometimes called delivery via the cloud).
3. Use a hybrid approach by offering inhouse email for users who require a great deal of functionality and hosted email service for users who need only the ability to send and receive messages.

Which option your organization should choose depends on its current infrastructure, its appetite for risk, the number of users and their security requirements and other needs, how much the company is willing to invest in the provision of an email service to users, and whether the company has made other investments in the email infrastructure that will be affected by a move to a new platform. For example, many large companies have deployed Research in Motion’s (RIM’s) BlackBerry Enterprise Server alongside Exchange or Lotus Notes or have built applications based on Exchange public folders or Lotus Notes mail routing. It’s hard to migrate to a new platform unless the new platform offers equivalent functionality. I’ll talk about more adoption considerations in a moment. First, let’s look at the newest option for email evolution—hosted email or email as a service.

Email as a Service
Email as a service is related to software as a service (SaaS), the software distribution model where customers access applications hosted by a service provider via the Internet. Cost is usually the major driver for using email as a service. A low-cost fixed-price offering is an attractive proposition when you consider the costs of servers, storage, networks, software licenses, and technical support necessary to run inhouse email.

Microsoft’s email-as-a-service solution is Microsoft Exchange Online, which is based on Exchange 2007. Part of Microsoft Online Services, a set of enterprise-class software offerings delivered as subscription services and hosted by Microsoft, Exchange Online should arrive toward the end of 2008, and is available in standard and dedicated versions. (For more information about Microsoft Online Services and Exchange Online see www.microsoft.com/online.) The standard version provides an infrastructure that hosts mailboxes from many different companies. The dedicated version is for companies with more than 5,000 users: Microsoft builds out a server environment to host the anticipated load. Both versions are based in Microsoft data centers and offer 1GB mailboxes, support for Windows Mobile devices, Outlook Web Access (OWA), antivirus and antispam, and 99.9 percent availability (the claim of 99.9 percent availability needs to be tested over time).

The dedicated version offers some optional services such as archiving, RIM Blackberry support, and data migration from an existing mail system. Customers using Active Directory (AD) can set up single sign-on (SSO) through a directory trust.

Google’s offering is Google Apps, which includes Gmail with a 25GB mailbox, Google Calendar, and Google Docs (e.g., word processing, presentations, and spreadsheets). Gmail is a perfectly acceptable email system if you’re willing to accept a web-based or IMAP client (including Microsoft Office Outlook) and less integration between components than is delivered by the Outlook- Exchange combination. Google offers antispam and antivirus services via its Postini subsidiary and can provide enhanced services for archiving, security, and compliance.

Moving to Gmail is straightforward if you use only basic email features such as Send and Receive messages. In particular, companies whose email strategy depends on POP3/IMAP4 based on a server such as Sun Microsystems iPlanet will find it easy to move to Gmail. However, companies that currently use an inhouse email system will run into problems associated with migration, the client experience, and interoperability. They might also find that their needs for e-discovery, compliance, and customization cause further complications. For example, some industry regulations require that every outgoing message (including those sent by mobile device) is stamped with a disclaimer text—with Gmail, it’s a challenge; with Exchange 2007, it entails a relatively simple transport rule. In the future, Google will likely develop Gmail as a more fully featured email server and improve its support for clients such as Outlook as well as invest in utilities that improve Gmail’s interoperability.

Speaking of support, that’s another issue that Google has yet to address. Large companies demand 24x7 support for applications and they want the same quality of support to be available in every country where they do business. Google has no background in delivering this type of support and although it will probably develop support capabilities over the next few years, anyone considering Gmail for the enterprise needs to consider this.

Microsoft announced list prices for its standard service in July 2008, with Exchange at $10 per mailbox or $15 for Microsoft Business Productivity Online Standard Suite (Exchange, SharePoint, Office Communications Server, and Live Meeting). The annual cost for Exchange Online is more expensive than Google’s Gmail—the premier edition of Google Apps costs $50 per user per year (www.google.com/a/help/intl/en/admins/editions.html)—but it’s possibly justified by the higher levels of functionality available using Exchange. Exchange Online doesn’t support Unified Messaging, probably because of the difficulty of integrating a standard service with multiple variants of PBXs and telephony backbones. The list prices from Microsoft and Google are guidelines and depend on the number of seats, their location worldwide, the services used, the length of the contract, how the service is supported, and the volume of business that a company does with the vendor over time.

Microsoft’s email service is likely to change over the coming years to incorporate new technology and keep pace with Google. The company is investing heavily in deploying the data centers to support Exchange as a service and in making changes in the Exchange code base; you can expect to see many of these changes in Exchange 14, due in 2009.

Unlike Google, Microsoft has to perform a balancing act as it develops its online presence. It doesn’t want to cannibalize its traditional market, and because not all of its software can yet run in the cloud, it doesn’t want to force customers to use cloud-based services because the change might cause customers to consider non- Microsoft options. If Microsoft gets it right, online services will add to its overall market. If not, it might be the start of an expensive dismantling of its Office franchise.

Inhouse Email
Because the features in Exchange and Lotus Notes have been assembled over the years, these servers can meet the needs of large enterprises in a way that a consumer-based product can’t. For example, many companies customize the display templates used by Exchange to show details of objects fetched from AD. New fields are added, fields are removed, and display text altered to meet the exact needs of the company. A well-populated Global Address List (GAL) complete with organizational information is a very useful tool for anyone who has to navigate through the organization. You can argue that this level of detail can be easily traded for a much lower cost of operation, until you compare access to an LDAP directory through whatever interface you select to go alongside Gmail. Although the LDAP lookup works, it’s not as easy for users and could actually increase costs through lower productivity and additional calls to the Help desk.

Another factor to consider is the health and richness of the ecosystem around successful products such as Exchange and Lotus Notes. Google is doing its best to encourage developers to leverage Google Apps and no doubt will succeed over time. Indeed, the fast iteration model used by Google for application development means that new solutions appear all the time. However, using Gmail today might mean having to search for new solutions to problems that have been solved many times over on the Exchange platform. Additionally, many companies have built a complete collaboration environment based on Microsoft technology (e.g., Exchange, SharePoint, and Office Collaboration Server). It might be easy to replace the messaging functionality delivered by an inhouse email server by purchasing email as a service, but you need to also consider the overall collaboration environment of your users. For example, customers using SharePoint Online can’t expect Microsoft to allow them to deploy custom web parts in Microsoft’s shared infrastructure.

Continue to page 2

   Previous  [1]  2  Next