Gartner: Gmail to challenge Microsoft for enterprise email dominance

Cloud email currently makes up only 3 to 4 percent of the overall enterprise email market, Gartner says in a new report, but that number is expected to rapidly grow during the next 10 years.

And, while Google's (Nasdaq: GOOG) Gmail currently only has a one percent share of the enterprise market, Gartner said it is a real threat to players like Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT), which leads the segment, because it makes up some 50 percent of the cloud email market overall.

"While cloud email is still in its infancy, at 3 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," said Matthew Cain, research VP at Gartner. "The intense competition between Microsoft and Google will make both vendors stronger and enable them to apply cloud expertise to other enterprise cloud endeavors."

Enterprises have taken a shine to cloud email provider The Chocolate Factory, one of the more successful enterprise providers aside from Microsoft Exchange.

Gmail's growth will depend on its willingness to make it easy for enterprises to customize.

As Gartner's report said: "While Google is good at taking direction and input on front-end features, it is more resistant to the back-end feature requests that are important to larger enterprises. Large system integrators and enterprises report that Google's lack of transparency in areas such as continuity, security and compliance can thwart deeper relationships."

For more:
- see this Register article

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