Google Gmail vs. Microsoft Exchange: Gartner Predictions

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Matthew Cain, research vice president at Gartner, lays it out like this in a prepared statement:

Where Microsoft Exchange and Google Gmail have prospered in the enterprise space, other solutions including IBM Lotus Notes/Domino and Novell GroupWise have lost momentum in the marketplace, according to the press release. Moreover, Cisco shuttered its business cloud e-mail solution, and VMware Zimbra is only now refocusing on the enterprise, according to Gartner.

But while Gmail is building out its solution’s broad enterprise appeal, as TalkinCloud has repeatedly pointed out, Gartner noted financial institutions and other organizations with strict and complex deployment requirements have found Google reluctant to add narrow-focused feature sets — especially less flashy upgrades that happen on the back end.

Regardless, Gartner reported, the cloud messaging market is continuing to mature, and competition between Microsoft and Google is healthy. I know there are plenty of cloud partners for both companies in the audience, and I’m very interested to hear what they have to say about Gartner’s conclusions — especially since Exchange Online is at the core of the Microsoft Office 365 suite.