Microsoft’s integrated suite across cloud and on-premise approach for security, archival, instant messaging and unified communication has led to a sustained advantage in the market place, according to a study by Ascentius. The finding of the study ‘Evolving market for email & collaboration platform in India’, shows Microsoft’s Exchange Server platform owns 78 % market share making it the largest on-premise email solution provider. Office 365 is the leader in the public cloud email and collaboration services market with a 70% market share.
2012 was taken as the base year for the study. It takes a broad look at the way Indian businesses are leveraging email and collaboration to pursue higher productivity. It also covers trends in the adoption of email and collaboration platform – be it on-premise, hosted or on cloud. The study takes into account nearly 100 businesses of all sizes including channel partners. Responses from the study were collected from different industries namely, manufacturing, IT & ITeS, professional services, to name a few.
“The Indian market for business email and collaboration platform is poised at an interesting juncture. While at one end, new paradigm such as hosted email and cloud based email market are breaking out and taking roots, on the other end, the on-premise email platform market continues to experience potential revenue growth and are emerging as the cornerstone for businesses to benefit from collaboration & unified communication,” stated Alok Shende, Principal Analyst & Founder Director, Ascentius. “Our study suggests mutual coexistence between on-premise and cloud based email & collaboration platforms in the future.”
“The reasons why businesses of all sizes are choosing Microsoft Exchange over Google Apps are enterprise-class security, reliability, anywhere access, data privacy and a familiar user experience,” said Tarun Malik, Director – Product Marketing & Strategy, Microsoft. “Microsoft, with the Exchange Server part of the Office 365 suite, is clearly the leader in the market of on-premise and public cloud email platforms, leaving Google Apps far behind, which is further validated by the study conducted by Ascentius.”