Behold - The Next Great Renaissance of Internet Trust

We are about to embark upon the next great Internet Renaissance. But this is not a renaissance of technological change, but rather one of trust. The first Great Renaissance of Trust occurred during the Internet's infancy when despite popular concern over its ubiquitous and open nature, business people around the world chose to accept the much-touted privacy risks in favor of the reach and transcension of time and geography brought about by the Internet (and in particular, Internet mail). Now, pioneered by companies like SalesForce.com and Google and endorsed recently by Microsoft, a new renaissance is emerging, one characterized by a growing acceptance of the use of software applications that run on a remote web-server rather than a local computer.

Where SalesForce.com proved the convenience and economics of business applications accessed over the Internet, Google demonstrated that a pot-of-gold exists for online advertisers. Google’s controversial G-mail hosted e-mail application that delivers e-mail messages accompanied by content-related text ads, was initially confronted with outrage over its apparent breach of privacy. But, in time the outrage subsided and G-Mail blazed a trail of a new user trust. Microsoft - the skilled chaser - will shortly follow suit with an enhanced hosted e-mail system of its own called Window Live Mail.

Companies like Google and SalesForce.com are ushering in a new Renaissance of Trust, one that is highlighted by the overriding principle that despite concerns over risks, people typically care more about how quickly they can find information than where it is kept.

Storing your e-mail in a safe off-site facility where it can be accessed even during times of crisis, or even many years later, may soon become commonplace. Google, SalesForce.com, Microsoft and many others are banking on a new business services model in which applications and data are delivered as a utility - a business model where Trust will again determine its uptake.

If you are looking for product information please go to http://www.northseasamt.com/

Radicati Says the EA Industry Growing Faster

The Radicati Group, one of the the messaging industries most respected analyst firms, has upped its estimate and now says that annual spending on e-mail archiving will reach almost $8 billion by 2010. Reflecting that the long-awaited market explosion is now happening, Radicati not only increased their previous prediction of $7.4 billion by 2011, but also pushed it up a year.

Specifically, Radicati says:

"The market for email archiving solutions will grow from $796 million in 2006, to almost $7.8 billion by the end of 2010."

My company believes that 30-40% of this market-demand will be for appliance-based solutions, either stand alone email archiving appliances or storage systems with EA capability.

If you are looking for product information please go to http://www.northseasamt.com/

Beware the Vendor Feature-Matrix

Our sales representatives are asked periodically to complete a Feature-Matrix supposedly so that customers can better understand how our product compares with others. The Feature-Matrix is a common sales tactic with software vendors. They provide a prospective customer with a matrix that may appear to be a neutral product comparison but is usually a biased list of features that highlights product strengths and hides weaknesses. Caveat Emptor. Buyer beware.

There's nothing wrong with a vendor providing a description of its product in an attempt to win over a customer. Some of these matricies however can be misleading. Let me give you an example. A few weeks back I was asked to fill out a matrix that was provided by a competing vendor. One of the features that was described as critical was the need for what they called a "Robust MTA" (our product by the way includes one of the most robust MTAs available, but that's not the point).

The explanation given for why a "Robust MTA" was so important was that an e-mail archiving system must be installed in front of the mail server in order to capture the envelope information. And when your archiving system is in front of the mail server it has to process mail fast enough not to slow down mail processing. This competitor's Features-Matrix highlighted a "Robust MTA"as a positive when in fact it was actually trying to cover up the fact that the vendor doesn't know how to capture e-mail envelope information when it is installed behind the mail server. With our product, just for the record, envelope information can be captured whether we are in front or behind the mail server, a feat our engineers are justifiably proud of. It's too bad this particular vendor's Feature-Matrix didn't include a feature called"Ability to Capture Envelope Information when Installed Behind the Mail Server". But really, why would they?.

If you are looking for product information please go to http://www.northseasamt.com/