The future is hosted, online e-mail

I somehow just discovered ZDNet blogs today. Here is another great one by Dion Hinchcliffe talking about why businesses should outsource their email. My favorite quote is part of the last paragraph:

Organizations spend untold millions managing non-strategic IT assets and it causes them to lose crucial focus from their core missions. It the end, it makes about as much sense as maintaining your own electrical power generation facilities; you can do it, but why would you?

Apparently ZDNet bloggers have been having this conversation over the last couple of weeks. I'm not sure how I missed out.

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Comments

[Vinny]

Another comparision (better?) would be to compare your email system to your office phone system.

Both are critical, and although phone companies actually have to lay cables and such and all we email providers have to do is "ride the net", the end result is comparable. Both are critical communication tool for your office, and both requires a huge amount of monitoring and maintaince. No system is self-run and perfect ... it makes sense to outsource (if the cost is right).

[XroadStrategy]

Pat - always the visionary. Finally had time to check out your blog - very nice.

To keep it on topic - my firm has relied on Pat and his team for five years and never once have they let us down or failed to respond rapidly and proactively to any problem we've encountered along the way. (there have not been many) He is right on the money here: hosted, web based email - fed through RSS - is where this is going.

Party on Wayne.

[Ryan]

I don't always agree with you Pat, but I think you're spot on here. Email, especially, is such a monster that nobody in their right mind would want to host it themselves. And if they do, they wished they hadn't.

[Pat]

I don't understand why you don't always agree with me. ;-o