Skip to main content

Upside Growth for Public Cloud-Based Email Services

Software as a Service (SaaS) applications continue to lead the ongoing enterprise migration to cloud-based service offerings. Given the recent trends, corporate email is a SaaS application that's likely to experience significant new growth during 2016.

The cloud email market is still in the early stages of adoption with 13 percent of identified publicly listed companies globally using one of the two main cloud email vendors, according to the latest worldwide market study by Gartner.

Gartner found that 8.5 percent of public companies use cloud email from Microsoft's Office 365 service, while 4.7 percent use Google Apps for Work. The remaining 87 percent of companies surveyed have on-premises, hybrid, hosted or private cloud email managed by smaller vendors.

These findings are based on an automated examination of a large number of publicly available email routing records. Gartner used the 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.

Rapid Adoption of Cloud Email Solutions

"Although it is still early days for cloud email adoption, both Microsoft and Google have achieved significant traction among enterprises of different sizes, industries and geographies," said Nikos Drakos, research vice president at Gartner.

Companies considering cloud email should question assumptions that public cloud email is not appropriate in their region, size or industry. Gartner believes their findings suggest that many varied organizations are already using cloud email, and the number is growing rapidly.

Among organizations using cloud email from Google and Microsoft, Microsoft is ahead in most industries, particularly in regulated industries including utilities, energy and aerospace. Google is 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.

"Among public companies using cloud-based email, Microsoft is more popular with larger organizations and has more than an 80 percent share of companies using cloud email with revenue above $10 billion," said Jeffrey Mann, research vice president at Gartner. "Google's popularity is better among smaller companies, approaching a 50 percent share of companies with revenue less than $50 million."

In some industries — such as travel and hospitality, professional services and consumer products — the highest usage levels are among the companies with the biggest revenue. More than a third of companies in these industries with revenue above $10 billion use cloud email from one of these two vendors.

Popular posts from this blog

How AI Transforms Financial Decision-Making

Artificial intelligence (AI) has emerged as a transformational force, reshaping business processes and unlocking new possibilities for efficiency and innovation in corporate finance. The latest Gartner survey on AI usage in finance provides evidence of this emerging trend, offering valuable insights into the future growth trajectory of AI in finance. The Gartner survey reveals a significant milestone. As of 2024, 58 percent of finance functions actively use AI technology -- that's a substantial increase from previous years. Artificial Intelligence Market Development Perhaps even more telling is the projection that by 2026 more than 80 percent of finance functions are expected to be leveraging AI solutions. The survey sheds light on the use cases of AI in finance: AI is being deployed to enhance forecasting accuracy and provide deeper insights into financial trends. Automation of routine tasks and improved accuracy in financial reporting are key benefits observed. AI algorithms are