IBM to launch cloud-based e-mail service
IBM on Monday is expected to release a new enterprise collaboration service based on its LotusLive cloud-based platform. The service comes with 1GB of storage and will cost $3.75 per user per month.
The new IBM LotusLive iNotes service is IBM's first real foray into a mass-market cloud-based service, including e-mail, calendaring, and contact management all designed to work with existing on-premise e-mail or operate as a standalone solution. Per user pricing will start at just $3 per month.
Realistically, the new IBM service isn't much different than you see from the likes of Google Apps or Yahoo--the big change is that it's coming from IBM, an enterprise stalwart. Whether you like Lotus Notes or not, this is big news as an endorsement of cloud computing and hosted applications.
Sean Poulley, vice president of IBM Cloud Collaboration Services, said customers have been looking for strategic versions of hosted solutions for a long time. The cloud approach of multitenancy means that the real cost of IT--the cost of running the applications--is reduced, bringing economies of scale to the offerings. IBM has been working on making the service secure and "enterprise ready," he said.
IBM's decision to start offering more cloud-based services is predicated on the notion that fewer people in IT organizations are carrying more responsibility. They are also more dependent on people outside of their organizations that need access to shared documents and files. On-premise collaboration applications can likely be manipulated to work in a shared manner, but LotusLive has been designed to work that way from the ground up.
When I asked why IBM would brand the new service as part of the Lotus family, Poulley said that more than half of the Fortune 100 companies use IBM collaboration technology that includes Lotus Notes and are well aware of the brand.
Dave Rosenberg dishes up "Software, Interrupted" with nearly 15 years of technology and marketing experience that spans from Bell Labs to multiple start-up IPOs to open-source enterprise software companies. He is co-founder of MuleSource and currently serves as the general manager of Hardy Way. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure. You can contact Dave via e-mail at softwareinterrupted@gmail.com or follow him on Twitter @daveofdoom. 
Google Apps for enterprises/governments is $50 per year. IBM's service is $36 per year.
Google is not giving their services for free to large organizations like universities, corporations, and governments. Google and Microsoft are currently battling it out for the City of Los Angeles' e-mail system. The total amount of $7 million has been bandied about in the media.
The paid-for services are (usually) more reliable and have better support for customers.
This news combined with the few outages of Gmail recently that got completely blown over the top might actually push some people over to IBM.
This is actually a really huge deal, despite the small inbox size. (honestly, how many people have even used much of their +6Gigs in Gmail?)
- by cnouri987 October 6, 2009 7:27 AM PDT
- I'm not sure if IBM can really compete in the SaaS space. It's a completely different business model from that they have built their business on. Other ISVs have also tried and either failed or seen limited success. Can IBM compete here? More thoughts here:
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