E-mail archiving and management, Part 2: From niche to core component

Global market competition

When you think of software, generally the dominant companies are US-based: Microsoft, IBM, Oracle and other heavyweights. Overall, that is the advantage the United States has traditionally had, owning more than 80 percent of the software marketplace. But the e-mail archiving and management marketplace has competitors from all over the globe.

Canada is home base for Incite Software, Activis Technologies and Fortiva. The United Kingdom is headquarters for C2C Systems and CC Data. New Zealand is home for an IBM Premier Business Partner, and AfterMail, which was purchased in January by U.S.-based Quest Software.

Expect more acquisitions and alliances in this dynamic marketplace as competitors seek to gain a technology or marketshare advantage. 

The 800-pound gorilla has arrived

Many measure the maturity of a marketplace by the entry of Microsoft. Because Microsoft doesn't enter any market until it is a market of millions of users, often its entry is a harbinger of a mature market. Well, folks, Bill Gates arrived at the doorstep of the e-mail management marketplace by completing the acquisition of FrontBridge in August. With the close of that purchase, Microsoft began the process of integrating FrontBridge into the Exchange Server Group.

Marketing what it terms "total message management," FrontBridge Technologies offers managed messaging services for enforcing e-mail compliance with encryption and archiving tools, provides e-mail availability through a Web-based backup and improves protection of employee inboxes from viruses and spam. Its line of services includes message archiving, spam and virus filtering, disaster recovery and e-mail encryption.

FrontBridge supports multiple e-mail platforms such as Microsoft Exchange and other SMTP-compliant servers, as well as IBM Lotus Domino for filtering and e-mail encryption. Those managed services are hosted and require no upfront capital investment--another departure for Microsoft. FrontBridge claims to manage the only globally load-balanced network to demonstrate 100 percent historic uptime. Its line of perimeter-based services includes e-mail and instant message archiving for compliance, content and policy enforcement, spam and virus protection, disaster recovery, e-mail encryption and e-mail continuity.

Watch for a real shootout now, while smaller firms race to garner marketshare and preen themselves for possible acquisition.