SolarWinds Survey Reveals Email Management Not Getting Any Easier, Innovation Needed

AUSTIN, TX--(Marketwired - Apr 9, 2014) - SolarWinds (NYSE: SWI), a leading provider of powerful and affordable IT management software, today released survey results highlighting the growing challenge organizations face managing email in an increasingly complex environment where BYOx, mobility and other disruptive technologies impact sysadmins' ability to reduce downtime and prevent disruptions to business. The survey also revealed that adding to the challenge is a lack innovation to help organizations better address this oft-neglected business critical application, and, as a result, more will ultimately shift the burden to hosted services providers.

"Email has become critical to businesses of all sizes," said Suaad Sait, executive vice president, products and markets, SolarWinds. "Just try shutting it down for 10 minutes and observe the outcry. In fact, in the business hierarchy of need, only Internet connectivity trumps e-mail, with everything else in tow. Yet contrary to logic, as email matures it's getting harder to manage. While major trends that have impacted the complexity of the overall IT infrastructure, such as BYOD, are indeed at play, the survey shows sysadmins simply don't have the tools necessary to effectively manage email systems, such as Exchange. The industry as a whole has not given email management the attention it deserves."

The results are part of the company's Email Management Survey, which was fielded in February and March 2014. The survey yielded responses from 162 IT practitioners, managers and directors with email management responsibilities in the U.S. and Canada from public and private sector mid-size and enterprise organizations.

Survey Findings:

Though email is a mature technology, it is growing more difficult for businesses to manage and thus requires significant resources. This increase in email management complexity has been especially impacted by the increasing adoption of BYOx and other disruptive technologies.

• 87 percent of respondents said the mass adoption of smart devices, such smartphones and tablets, have increased the amount of email sent and received
• BYOx and mobility tied as the top technology forces driving email management complexity higher
• 42 percent of respondents said they manage environments with more than 5,000 mailboxes
• 49 percent of organizations with more than 5,000 mailboxes have six or more employees managing email, while 61 percent of companies with more than 50,000 mailboxes employ 10 or more employees to manage email
• While 74 percent of organizations use only a single email application, 26 percent use at least two email applications, with 10 percent of those using three or more

Despite the importance of email in day-to-day business operations and the increasing complexity surrounding it, innovation to help organizations simplify and automate its management has been neglected by the IT industry.