Has email become a commodity? It depends who you ask. For years Microsoft has had the market (62% of commercial email according to a recent Radicati Group analysis) believing that premise-based collaboration with all the bells and whistles was a requirement of a savvy business. In fact, Microsoft would lead you to believe that email and collaboration is unique to each commercial entity when in fact almost every Exchange Server I’ve deployed has been homogeneous.
We all have the same basic email and collaboration needs. We need it to be available anywhere, it has to have ample storage, and we need to easily create and share content (docs, spreadsheets, etc.). Google Apps provides these core features without all the fuss of more servers, software and licensing, and ongoing IT support. Google Apps Premier includes Google Sites, Docs, Spreadsheets, Presentation, Postini SPAM filtering and security policies, GMail and Google Talk with 25Gb per user for $50 / user / year. This approach to email and collaboration is gaining significant market share, even Microsoft has retooled their approach by launching Microsoft Live, a Google Apps approach to email and collaboration. In the end, the commoditization of email helps us all – we get more features, better access and scalability and all for less money! To find out more on SaaS email platforms please contact Agosto today.
Aric Bandy
