Chris asked the audience in the next 12 months: Who is keeping email and collaboration on premises? It was twice as many as evaluating options to move to the cloud. No one said that they are actually making the move or have already made the move. I would imagine that the email is more of the barrier than other forms of collaboration. This session focused on email. Chris' data support that the challenge is email as over 90% of firms are now keeping email on premise while many other collaboration apps are moving to the cloud. Video conferencing is one of the most moved with less than 30% remaining on premise. 

The cloud can enable IT to focus more on business apps and keep email apps more up-to-date in terms of features. Another presenter noted that over 70% of most IT budgets are for operations and not for strategic business capabilities. There is also more cost savings, at least up front and likely for the total cost of ownership (but not always).

Email is one piece of the broader collaboration strategy. There are several alternatives to on premise: fully hosted, hosted supporting services (hybrid), and split domain (another hybrid). You can split off supporting services such as archiving. The split domain hybrid model means that some of workforce is in the cloud and some stays on premise for regulatory or other purposes. Pharma is an example here.

When you move to the cloud mobile device options are limited. However, despite the rise of mobile, US organizations are slowly moving to the cloud. Currently over 70% are on premise but in two years over 50% say they will move to the cloud for email. In Europe there is much less movement as these countries are more concerned about issues such as privacy.

What are the issues in the move to the cloud? First, there are significant investments in enterprise directories, sometimes to clean up patchwork solutions. The coexistence in the interim can be painful. Calendar is one area where this occurs. For this reason companies are moving to the "big bang" all at once approach to migration. Migration costs tend to run about .5 to 1.5 x annual fee per user. Part of the issue is how much data is carried over. Also movement to a new platform with training costs associated with it can raise the cost.

Lessons learned include the need to have representatives from all groups in your pilot. The use of communities and employee evangelists can reduce migration costs. Pick the natural helpers.  Issues that can slow things down: integration, security, SLAs, and legal terms.

How to do things right? Start with employee requirements (e.g., mail box size, archive requirements, SLAs, mobile). Segment employees if warranted. Then determine integration requirements. Conduct a cost requirements study. Forrester has a model for this. Discover external regulatory requirements and finally, determine internal security requirements.

There are many vendors that can host mailboxes. You do not have to limit yourself to the big names such as Google, IBM, and Microsoft. There are specialists, telecoms, and traditional outsourcers.

In short term run a pilot. It is easy. Also stop making any deeper ties into on premise email. Work with IT to determine the operational model for the move to the cloud. In the longer term, consider more than email. Do not over-provision based on your neediest users. Look into existing relationships for help. Are you already working with firms for other needs that provide this service? Time your move with an upgrade. All of this is good advice.