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To encourage users to migrate, Microsoft is attracting users with promises of reduced storage costs, hybrid deployment options and free premium tools thrown in
By Srikanth R P
While Microsoft Exchange still has a dominant market share, it is currently facing the heat from a host of new upstarts and traditional competitors. Old warhorses such as IBM have undertaken a series of new initiatives, while new open source and SaaS upstarts are challenging the hold that Microsoft has traditionally enjoyed in this market. Zimbra, a player in the open source server software space for e-mail and collaboration recently announced that it had reached 50 million paid mailboxes—growth the company has achieved in less than four years. Traditional rival IBM, with its Lotus Notes Traveler software, is also pushing the levels of competition through its Lotus Notes Traveler software—which is a push mail offering providing quick access to e-mail through mobile phones. Similarly, Cisco—traditionally a long-time Microsoft partner—is taking a shot at this market with its enterprise SaaS-based e-mail service, WebEx e-mail.
With new competition emerging from the cloud and traditional rivals offering more features, Microsoft is pulling out all stops in its quest to hold on to its dominant position. And if you analyze Exchange 2010, you will realize that this version not only gives Microsoft a huge opportunity to consolidate its place as the dominant vendor in the messaging space, but more importantly gives the company an equal opportunity to play in the cloud. This means that enterprises can use Exchange 2010 as a service through the Hosted Exchange or the Business Productivity Online suite, use it via the traditional installed on-premises model, or consume it through a hybrid model.
Organizations that are consuming Exchange using the traditional on-premise model can choose the cloud model for their future deployments. “With Exchange 2010, it is possible for organizations to have a hybrid cloud deployment with a single management console. You can even move mailboxes to and from the cloud using the Exchange Management console. This flexible deployment option can help enterprises save costs by over 50 percent,” explains Amit Mehta, Director - UC, Microsoft India.
Dabbling with the Cloud
This transition of Microsoft is best summed up by research firm, Gartner, in its report on Microsoft Exchange 2010 which states: “Exchange 2010 represents both the beginning of the end of the premises-based e-mail era, and the dawn of the cloud-based e-mail era.”
With several low-cost competitors snapping at its heels, Microsoft’s hybrid strategy is a win-win one as it allows the company to protect its customer base in the on-premise model—while simultaneously giving customers the choice to migrate to a new cloud-based model.
Besides the flexibility in deployment, Microsoft has also made it possible for enterprises to use low-cost SATA disks instead of the conventional SAN architecture.
Wipro is piloting Exchange 2010, and believes that the low-cost SATA drives have given it a low-cost storage deployment alternative. “From an overall cost and operational point of view, Exchange 2010 will help us save significantly on storage-related costs,” says Madhusudhan Mendu, General Manager- IT, Wipro.
Mobile push
In Exchange 2010, users can initiate chat within the browser window, and also have a text preview of voice mail. To further attract users, Microsoft is touting in-built capabilities such as archival, anti-spam and compliance software that would normally require enterprises to purchase third-party software. Administrators can also use the Active Directory Rights Management Services feature to assign usage policies that define how a specific person or group can use rights-protected content.
With Exchange 2010, Microsoft is also aiming at the open source e-mail messaging market in India. “Many Indian SMBs that are using open source messaging solutions are still struggling with integration and mobility issues. With a hosted pay-per-use model of Exchange 2010, we believe we can make inroads into this market,” says Mehta.
By focusing on the troika of cost, mobility and security, Microsoft is hoping that enterprise customers will take the bait at a time where upgrading is clearly not a priority.
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