Cloud Security

Email is gaining momentum as a cloud-based service. While security remains a top concern, IT leaders at big businesses and government agencies are deciding the cloud is secure enough to handle this critical business application. And vendors are responding with more options for taking email into the cloud.

The most direct route is to convert Microsoft Exchange or Lotus Notes platforms into online services. Both Microsoft and IBM see the opportunity and have been investing in cloud email capabilities.

Microsoft, which this summer opened major data centers in Chicago and Dublin to provide cloud services, has landed several significant cloud deals, including providing online email for GlaxoSmithKline’s 100,000 employees and for the 72,000 employees of Coca-Cola Enterprises.

IBM is also charging hard on cloud email. In addition to its hosted Lotus Notes offering, last month it unveiled LotusLive iNotes, an online email platform that offers a mailbox, 1 GB of storage, mobile device support, spam and antivirus protection, monitoring, and administration tools to companies for $36 per user a year.

CIOs are considering cloud-based email mostly because it lowers costs, though it can also provide benefits in areas such as smartphone integration and remote workforces. In an August study, Forrester Research Inc. concluded that companies with fewer than 15,000 employees can almost always save money by moving their email to the cloud. Larger companies can save money even if they keep on-premises email for most employees by moving occasional users who can get by with a Web-based client to a cloud-based provider. That can save up to $63 a user per year, Forrester estimates.

Google is the other big force driving the cloud email market, making a concerted push this year for business and government customers. And Google isn’t content just to land email accounts. Over the next few months, Los Angeles, which gave Google a $7.25 million contract to provide online email for its 30,000 city employees, will test cloud-based Google Apps for collaboration, video instant messaging, and archiving. During the trial, the city put a one-year moratorium on renewing Microsoft productivity software.

Vendors know security is critical to businesses and government, and that the scrutiny will only get more intense as they vie for larger customers. IBM, Microsoft, and Google all have SAS 70 Type II certification, meaning outside auditors have verified their security processes and controls. In vying for government contracts, Google hopes by year’s end to get its application certified for compliance with the Federal Information Security Management Act, or FISMA, which covers suppliers of all kinds dealing with federal agencies’ sensitive data.

— Mary Jander

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