***Ferris Research Offers Predictions about Messaging in 2005
SAN FRANCISCO
Jan. 4, 2005
Phishing, compliance, VoIP, and spam will be major themes for the
messaging industry in 2005, according to predictions offered
today by Ferris Research, a San Francisco-based consultancy
specializing in messaging and collaboration technology.
The predictions, described more fully in a report, Key Messaging
and Collaboration Trends, 2005, were gathered by Ferris
Research's analysts from its enterprise user panel, and are:
1. By the end of 2005 90% of all mailboxes that are experiencing
a spam problem with be protected by an commercial anti-spam
solution. Organizations will, in many cases, deploy second
generation solutions to products that they feel aren't effective
enough.
2. Phishing and spyware will be demonstrated as a problem not
limited to consumer mailboxes in the coming year. Phishing
attacks will attempt to steal organizational credentials and
spyware will increasingly be viewed as a corporate threat.
3. Regulatory compliance will be top-of-mind for many messaging
managers. As legal judgments and court decisions are handed down
in 2005, it will become much easier for organizations to
determine what they must do to be in compliance than it is
presently.
4. The new regulatory climate will drive an increasing interest
in messaging archiving. As archiving becomes a higher priority,
investment in archiving companies will increase, though further
vendor consolidation in the sector is virtually certain.
5. Organizations will continue to resist major upgrades or
platform migrations. Weak business justification and the massive
effort sometimes involved suggests that only those running the
most outdated systems, or involved in mergers will find good
reasons for major changes.
6. Wireless access to email, IM, calendar and tasks -- once
reserved for the techno-elite -- will become much more mainstream
in the coming year. Better devices, better network coverage, and
better economics will all play a part.
7. Tools to help address email information overload such as
searching, filtering and automated categorization will receive
strong interest in 2005. The need to monitor compliance
monitoring will provide one significant justification, but the
really payoff will be in dramatically improved access to
information.
8. Secure messaging. In 2005 workable solutions to inter-
enterprise message encryption should finally emerge. While it's
not yet clear what organizations are willing to pay for this
capability, the increased awareness, regulatory requirements, and
need for security in general suggests that products and services
in this category will at last be viable.
9. Use of Voice over IP (VoIP) services from conventional phones,
between PCs, and between PCs and conventional phones, will
continue to expand and prices will fall. Existing telcos will
offer flat rate VoIP services as add-ons to their DSL broadband
offerings, cable providers will offer flat rate VoIP services as
one of a set of bundled (television+broadband+voice) offerings,
and Instant Messaging vendors will work harder to integrate voice
services.
10. Calendaring. Interoperability between electronic calendars
will remain problematic. Though standards (iCAL, iMIP) have been
set and implemented by many electronic calendar system vendors
and service providers, their commitment to interoperability will
remain lukewarm.
www.ferris.com/
Wave Issue 0501 1/7/05 Article 2-01