Skip Links

Network World

  • Social Web 
  • Email 
  • Close

Messaging management: Do you want it all from one vendor?

Messaging management: One-stop shop or best-of-breed?
Unified Communications Alert By Michael Osterman , Network World , 10/25/2005
Michael Osterman
Sign up for this newsletter now!

It used to be, back in the olden days of e-mail management, that if you ran good anti-virus defenses and maintained e-mail servers properly you were pretty much ahead of the game in terms of good management of your e-mail infrastructure. Then along came the deluge of spam; the need to focus more on encrypting messages; the need to scan outbound messages for confidential and other sensitive information; and the need to implement sound disaster recovery, as well as to keep on top of spyware. Then there's the need for regulatory oversight, managing the increased use of consumer instant messaging in the workplace and the threat of IM-oriented malware. The result is that messaging administrators face a lot of different problems that need to be solved properly in order to keep messaging running 24/7.

While best-of-breed solutions work very nicely to address these problems, a collection of eight or 10 different vendors' systems can be difficult to manage given the potential for unexpected interactions between them, different upgrade cycles, etc. As a result, our research finds that the vast majority of people who manage e-mail systems want an integrated messaging management system that will allow them to have a single view into all of the functions they need to manage messaging properly.

Vendors are responding to this market demand by offering new capabilities in their products, acquiring companies that offer point solutions that can be integrated with other complementary systems, or both. The market's need for integrated messaging management is the key driver for all messaging acquisitions we've been seeing in the past year or so, including those by Symantec, Microsoft, Computer Associates and many other companies. And, it's the driver that will keep these acquisitions coming at a regular pace throughout the next 12 to 18 months.

In short, many vendors are becoming "one-stop shops" of messaging management functionality, a trend that will continue unabated for the foreseeable future. I'd appreciate getting your feedback on the usefulness of these one-stop shop approaches vs. selecting best-of-breed capabilities: please drop me a line at michael@ostermanresearch.com.

Partner Content
CA logo

CA Network & Voice Resource Center

Comprehensive Network & Voice Management Visit CA Network & Voice Management Resource Center and get insights into industry best practices, information that helps you to address your challenges.

CA Network & Voice Management Resource Center

whitepaper

Managing Voice Over IP for Successful Convergence

Voice over IP (VoIP) has much to offer in cost savings but some customers have concerns about VoIP call quality compared to the quality of traditional voice services. This white paper will help you learn how to take the right steps so that voice quality is assured.

Managing VoIP for Successful Convergence

whitepaper

The Changing Face of Network Management

Managing your network is serious business. This paper discusses the benefits of integrating configuration change-awareness into your network fault management solution

Download Whitepaper

Comment
Login
Forgot your account info?
Add comment
Anonymous comments subject to moderator approval. Register here for member benefits.
Have a NetworkWorld account? Log in here. Register now for a free account.

Videos

rssRss Feed
Save The Date!
What They Are Saying

Investment of a Technology should be 'held off' because there hasn't been enough investment in it yet? Is...- Anonymous

Join the Discussion