By Deanne Hollis

Results of a recent survey conducted by Osterman Research indicate that IT managers are concerned about the cost and complexity of upgrading or migrating to a new email system in the upcoming year - in particular, to Microsoft Exchange 2007. With a market share of approximately 44 percent (according to Osterman Research), a great number of enterprises will have to grapple with the decision in the near future.

In fact, 67.3 percent of those surveyed indicated that they plan to either upgrade or migrate to a new email server in 2007. Forty-four percent report that they anticipate a migration to Exchange 2007 will take more than six months. Commissioned by PostPath, Osterman Research surveyed 110 enterprises with a mean of 6,638 email users per organization.

What storage issues are IT managers facing with regards to email?

Storage and Compliance Issues

According to the survey results, 59 percent of organizations indicated that messaging storage growth is a serious problem. With 75 percent of all legal actions involving the discovery of email (as noted in the report), the management and storage of email messages is a primary concern. Survey results show that 48 percent of those surveyed have not allocated budget to meet e-discovery or compliance requirements.

Where compliance is concerned, "Growth in email storage is the number one problem facing IT managers today," said Michael Osterman, principal of Osterman Research. "With storage needs increasing by approximately 35 percent per year, IT managers are faced with finding the best solutions to manage email volume and meet archiving requirements for compliance."

Recommendations

IT managers, VARs and system integrators confronting this challenge will want to keep in mind some of the research firm's recommendations:

· Look at your email needs as a whole - not as a series of disconnected components.
· Email should be considered a utility - drive costs down as low as possible.
· Provide for needed server growth while minimizing the number of servers.
· Consider the total cost of potential new hardware requirements.
· Evaluate the cost of training and new licensing fees.

Osterman Research's brief, "E-mail Migration Trends and Challenges" can be downloaded at http://www.postpath.com/campaign/osterman-form.

Deanne Hollis is the CTR online editor.