Some interesting numbers can be found in the research of the Radicati Group. This company specializes in researching e-mail, security, instant messaging and social networking with a focus on enterprise market.
In the study entitled “Microsoft Exchange Server and Outlook Market Analysis, 2010-2014”, we see that on-premises Exchange in 2010 has 76% of mailboxes as opposed to 15% being hosted and 9% from managed Exchange.
The research predicts a decrease of on-premises Exchange to 72% over the next four years.
In the “Microsoft Exchange Server and Outlook Market Analysis, 2014-2018” study, the numbers are the direct opposite. The findings show that the number of on-premises Exchange mailboxes have increased to 83%. The total share of could-based Exchange, including Office 365 and hosted is only 17%.
Despite the temptation to save money, cloud based mail in the corporate sector has met with the following distinct problems:
- Government regulations concerning protection and storage of e-mail.
- Risk of storing restricted information on 3rd party servers.
- Lack of the security control for the owner of the data and concern about security level.
The rapid move to the cloud of e-mail and e-mail archiving, predicted by many experts in 2008-2012, did not happen in 2013-2014. With the overall increase of Microsoft Exchange Server market share (about 2-3% annually) the number of on-premises Exchange mailboxes is still increasing fast despite predictions and the aggressive pushing of cloud technologies.
