SaaS-based E-mail Archiving Momentum Continues

Market
Report

SaaS-based E-mail Archiving Momentum
Continues

By Brian Babineau
March 2010 © 2010, Enterprise Strategy Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Market Report: SaaS-based E-mail Archiving Momentum Continues 2
Contents
Overview ....................................................................................................................................................... 3
The "Why and How" of E-mail Archiving ...................................................................................................... 3
The Case for SaaS .......................................................................................................................................... 4
Getting the User Experience Right ............................................................................................................... 6
Don't be Afraid of the Cloud ......................................................................................................................... 7
Finding the Right Time .................................................................................................................................. 8
Looking to the Future ................................................................................................................................... 8
The Bigger Truth ........................................................................................................................................... 9 All trademark names are property of their respective companies. Information contained in this publication has been obtained by sources The Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG) considers to be reliable but is not warranted by ESG. This publication may contain opinions of ESG, which are subject to change from time to time. This publication is copyrighted by The Enterprise Strategy Group, Inc. Any reproduction or redistribution of this publication, in whole or in part, whether in hard-copy format, electronically, or otherwise to persons not authorized to receive it, without the express consent of the Enterprise Strategy Group, Inc., is in violation of U.S. copyright law and will be subject to an action for civil damages and, if applicable, criminal prosecution. Should you have any questions, please contact ESG Client Relations at (508) 482-0188.
© 2010, Enterprise Strategy Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Market Report: SaaS-based E-mail Archiving Momentum Continues 3
Overview Recent ESG research suggests e-mail archiving is becoming a "must have" technology and all indicators point to SaaS-based solutions growing in popularity for companies of all sizes; a lack of skilled e-mail administrators and a variety of improved SaaS offerings are only two of the reasons why archiving may move to the cloud sooner rather than later. 1In February 2009, ESG published a report outlining two critical arguments: Medium-size business (100-999 employees) can benefit from e-mail archiving just as they have from other message management processes such as anti-spam and anti-virus. Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions make it easy for medium-size organizations, which typically have limited IT sources, to get started with e-mail archiving. ESG believes that thesis is beginning to become reality. A recently completed and soon to be published ESG research study indicates that the number organizations using a SaaS-based e-mail archive solution has increased 2350% over the past three years. There are other indicators as well: companies are using other message management-related services including backup, recovery, and security delivered via SaaS. These trends are likely to span organizations of all sizes looking to get their cloud computing initiatives off the ground (SaaS falls into the cloud computing category because applications are delivered by an external service provider rather than via in-house IT systems).
The "Why and How" of E-mail Archiving ESG has always maintained the belief that it is not a matter of if organizations will archive e-mail; it's how. Organizations will eventually need to archive e-mail in ord... [download for more]