The world map shows the prevalence of public Cloud email services from Google or Microsoft among publicly listed companies (blue = more cloud email servers from Microsoft than Google; red = more cloud email servers from Google than Microsoft; unshaded = no or limited data). Source: Gartner (January 2016)
The burgeoning Cloud email market is Microsoft’s to lose, according to a study by analyst firm, Gartner.
The researcher released a study that showed Microsoft was the Cloud email provider of choice in most large companies globally, particularly those in regulated industries like utilities, energy and aerospace.
Gartner research vice-president, Jeffrey Mann, said Microsoft was well in front of Google amongst larger organisations with over 80 per cent share of companies with revenue above $US10 billion.
"Google's popularity is better among smaller companies, approaching a 50 per cent share of companies with revenue less than $US50 million,” Mann added.
Google is also ahead in industry segments with more competition and less regulation, such as software publishing, retail, advertising, media, education, consumer products, food and beverage, and travel.
The study showed 13 per cent of identified publicly listed companies globally are using one of the two main Cloud email vendors. It also found that 8.5 per cent of public companies use Cloud email from Microsoft's Office 365 service, while 4.7 per cent use Google Apps for Work. The remaining 87 per cent have on-premises, hybrid, hosted or private Cloud email managed by smaller vendors.
Gartner research vice-president, Nikos Drakos, said even though it was still early days for Cloud email adoption, both Microsoft and Google had achieved significant traction among enterprises of different sizes, industries and geographies.
"Companies considering Cloud email should question assumptions that public Cloud email is not appropriate in their region, size or industry. Our findings suggest that many varied organizations are already using cloud email, and the number is growing rapidly,” he added.
The study was based on an automated examination of a large number of publicly available email routing records. It used email server addresses in the domain records of nearly 40,000 public companies globally, to find out which ones point to Cloud email services from Google or Microsoft.
