Abstract
Report Focus
This report presents the results of a detailed research program into preferences and plans for messaging servers among mid-sized (100 to 2,500 email users) and large (>2,500 email users) organizations in the North American market. It focuses on the market for messaging servers, the cost of managing these systems, problems that organizations have in managing their messaging infrastructure, the potential for alternative messaging systems, and so forth.
The goal of this research was to provide vendors, investors and others interested in the hosted messaging market with actionable information that they can use to develop marketing plans and to more accurately focus their efforts on understanding and penetrating the SMB messaging market.
Key Findings and Trends Discussed in this Report
Less server consolidation
The trend of centralizing messaging servers slowed down this year, reflecting overall IT trends of moving resources from developing infrastructure to building productivity.
Windows messaging dominates
While Linux popularity has grown, Windows remains the preferred messaging platform for most organizations. It will continue to dominate in the smaller enterprises for some time. Within larger organizations, however, Linux is more popular as an email infrastructure platform.
Message delivery platforms
The majority of enterprises prefer on-premise email systems. Smaller organizations, however, are more open to purchasing a hosted service.
Storage growth woes
Messaging storage growth is the most serious problem facing IT executives today. For nearly one-half of organizations, messaging storage grew by up to 25% over the past year. Contributing to the demand for messaging storage are increasing employee use of attachments and users sending large attachments through email.
Legal discovery, a major concern
Changes in the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP) will impact budgets next year. A significant minority of small enterprises view themselves as being poorly equipped to address FRCP compliance concerns. As such, auditing and monitoring tools will take top position in messaging budgets next year with email archiving and tools for electronic discovery being the most popular.
When it comes to price, size matters
Smaller organizations are spending twice as much per seat on messaging as are larger organizations. With increasing storage costs, a sizeable minority of participants are not very confident in their ability to estimate those costs.
Inspecting employee messages
While organizations are concerned about potentially damaging or embarrassing email, the overwhelming majority do not want to be in the business of inspecting outgoing emails either before or after employees send email.
Internal messaging security
Growing awareness that more security threats originate behind firewalls than outside are forcing IT organizations to reconsider their security postures.
Popularity of messaging architectures
Microsoft continues to lead the installed base of corporate messaging systems. While Exchange accounts for the largest single share of the installed base in North America, the much larger market for the platform is in large organizations of >2,500 users where Notes/Domino has a large share, while Exchange dominates more completely in the middle tier of 100- to 2,500-seat organizations.
Initiatives for 2008
One-half of organizations are going through an email server upgrade, while two in five are planning a platform upgrade or migration. More than a third are planning on upgrading or deploying systems for combating spam, viruses, and spyware.
Storage management will be critical
For the past two years, the most serious problem cited by messaging decision-makers in mid-sized and large organizations has been growth in email storage. Osterman Research believes that this will continue to be a major problem for organizations given that email use is growing at roughly 20% per year, that email attachments are becoming larger and that email is increasingly used as a repository of critical business documents.
Future for messaging applications
Over the next four years, two-thirds of organizations indicated that they expect to adopt unified messaging in some form.
Alternative vendors will not dominate, but their business will grow
Alternative messaging vendors continue to face a stiff challenge from the entrenched vendors, namely Microsoft, IBM and Novell. That said, Osterman Research believes that a variety of alternative messaging vendors will see growing sales volumes over the next several years.
Table of Contents
- 1. Executive Summary
- 2. Methodology and Overview
- 3. Current Messaging Environment
- 4. Messaging Cost of Ownership
- 5. Messaging Management Capabilities
- 6. Windows vs. Linux
- 7. Messaging Security Issues
- 8. Future Messaging Server Trends
- 9. Messaging Server Vendors and Purchasing Issues
List of Figures
- North American Corporate Messaging Server Installed Base, 2007
- Current Messaging System Architectures By Organization Size
- Growth in Messaging Storage Summer 2006 to Summer 2007
- “Do you use mailbox quotas in your messaging system?”
- Users per FTE Administrator for Leading Messaging Systems
- External Expenditures on Messaging Per Seat Per Year By Organization Size
- Decision-Makers' Confidence in Their Estimates of the Costs of Providing Messaging Capabilities
- Perceived Importance of Being Better Able to Manage Email Attachments
- Importance of Various Factors in Selecting Storage Capabilities for Messaging
- Frequency with Which Email Policies are Reviewed and/or Modified By Organization Size
- “How well equipped is your organization in terms of policies, tools, etc. to address regulatory, HR and legal issues for email?”
- Practices for Checking Email Before it is Sent
- Practices for Checking Email After it is Sent
- Level of Concern Over Employees Browsing the Web With No Supervision and/or Monitoring
- Percentage of a Typical Workday That Decision-Makers Believe Employees Spend Browsing the Web on Non-Work Related Sites
- Preferences for Email Infrastructure Platforms Given the Constraints of the Current Infrastructure
- Preferences for Email Infrastructure Platforms If the Current Email Infrastructure Could be Scrapped
- Preferences for Deploying a New Messaging System Based on Whether or Not the Current Desktop Client Can be Retained
- Organizations' Willingness to Consider Switching to Linux-Based Messaging Servers Over Time
- Perceived Benefits of Linux-Based Email Servers Among Organizations That Use Windows-Based
- Email Servers
- Factors That Prevent Organizations From Switching to a Linux-Based Messaging System
- Preferences for Instant Messaging Infrastructure Platforms Given the Current Infrastructure
- Preferences for Instant Messaging Infrastructure Platforms if the Current Instant Messaging Infrastructure Could be Scrapped
- “For Outlook users who are based in corporate offices (not road warriors), are you securing data between Outlook and Exchange?”
- Forms of Outlook Security Used
- “If you do not secure between Outlook and Exchange, are you planning to adopt security over the next 12 months?”
- Types of Outlook Security That Organizations are Planning to Adopt
- Methods That Remote Users Employ to Connect to Exchange Servers
- “If you use a VPN connection for your remote users, are you considering transitioning to HTTPS for Outlook Exchange?”
- North American Corporate Messaging Market Installed Base, 2007
- Organizations Plans for Upgrading to Exchange 2007 Among Organizations That Currently Use Exchange
- Organizations' Plans for Upgrading to Notes/Domino R8 Among Organizations That Currently Use Notes/Domino
- Plans for Server Consolidation Projects
- Importance of Various Initiatives Through Summer 2008
- Plans for Deploying Unified Messaging Capabilities
- Interest in Integrating Email With Other Information/Data Objects
List of Tables
- Distribution of Corporate Messaging Systems in the North American Installed Base by Organization Size
- Email Users That Employ Various Technologies
- Messaging-Related Systems in Place, 2007 and 2008
- Problems in Managing Messaging Systems
- Messaging Management Systems / Tools in Use
- Desirability of Various Delivery Models for Messaging Management
- Desirability of Various Delivery Models for Messaging
- Desirability of Windows vs. Linux for Messaging
- Distribution of Corporate Messaging Systems in the North American Installed Base by Organization Size
- Distribution of Exchange Users by Version, 2007 and 2009
- Distribution of Notes/Domino Users by Version, 2007 and 2009
- Likelihood of Considering Various Messaging Server Vendors
- Decision Makers' Perception of Messaging-Related Vendors
- Roles of Various Job Functions in the Adoption of New Messaging Technologies
















