Computerworld

​Google searching for answers as Microsoft dominates NZ cloud email market

New Zealand ranks as one of the highest adopters of cloud email in the world, with Microsoft dominating Google across the country.

New Zealand ranks as one of the highest adopters of cloud email in the world, with Microsoft dominating Google across the country.

As cloud email gains traction across enterprises worldwide, closer to home, a recent study by Gartner claims that 22.5 percent of Kiwi companies prefer Microsoft Office 365 solutions, compared to Google Apps for Work at 4.7 percent.

Making up the remainder of the market is a smattering of smaller vendors, including private cloud and on-premise, which collectively captures 72.8 percent of the industry.

Gartner’s findings are in line with Microsoft’s own research from late 2014, which showed that New Zealand small-medium businesses topped the world in terms of Office 365 adoption, with 15 percent of the market moving to the cloud with Microsoft.

As explained by then Microsoft New Zealand Managing Director Paul Muckleston, New Zealand ranks number one globally for Microsoft in terms of market share for Office 365.

From a Gartner perspective, Microsoft dominates cloud email in large public companies across the world, and shares the remainder of the market with long-term industry rival Google.

Findings suggests that the cloud email market is still in the early stages of adoption with 13 percent of identified publicly listed companies globally using one of the two main cloud email vendors.

According to Gartner, and from a global perspective, 8.5 percent of public companies in the sample use cloud email from Microsoft's Office 365 service, while 4.7 percent use Google Apps for Work.

The remaining 87 percent of companies surveyed have on-premises, hybrid, hosted or private cloud email managed by smaller vendors.

These are the findings of a Gartner research study based on an automated examination of a large number of publicly available email routing records. Gartner used the email server addresses in the domain records of nearly 40,000 public companies globally, to find out which ones point to cloud email services from Google or Microsoft.

“Although it is still early days for cloud email adoption, both Microsoft and Google have achieved significant traction among enterprises of different sizes, industries and geographies,” says Nikos Drakos, research vice president, Gartner.

“Companies considering cloud email should question assumptions that public cloud email is not appropriate in their region, size or industry.

“Our findings suggest that many varied organisations are already using cloud email, and the number is growing rapidly.”

Among organisations using cloud email from Google and Microsoft, Microsoft is ahead in most industries, particularly in regulated industries including utilities, energy and aerospace.

Google is ahead in industry segments with more competition and less regulation, such as software publishing, retail, advertising, media, education, consumer products, food and beverage, and travel.

“Among public companies using cloud-based email, Microsoft is more popular with larger organisations and has more than an 80 percent share of companies using cloud email with revenue above $10 billion,” adds Jeffrey Mann, research vice president, Gartner.

“Google's popularity is better among smaller companies, approaching a 50 percent share of companies with revenue less than $50 million."

In some industries - such as travel and hospitality, professional services and consumer products - the highest usage levels are among the companies with the biggest revenue.

More than a third of companies in these industries with revenue above $10 billion use cloud email from one of these two vendors.