Cisco kills off its hosted e-mail product
Company had invested about $250 million in the cloud offering
IDG News Service - Cisco Systems has decided to kill Cisco Mail only 13 months after it introduced the cloud-based e-mail service, according to a Cisco blog post on Tuesday.
With the growing acceptance of cloud computing, Cisco saw a chance to offer e-mail services along with its successful WebEx Conferencing service, which combines desktop sharing through a Web browser with phone- and videoconferencing. But it seems customers weren't as interested in getting e-mail from the networking giant.
Cisco's failure, after investing $250 million in the initiative, demonstrates the challenge of penetrating a mature market -- and the difficulty of delivering a complex and demanding cloud-based application service, Gartner analyst Matthew Cain wrote in a research note.
Cisco said it folded the service because customers have come to "view their e-mail as a mature and commoditized tool," which has apparently made the field less interesting for Cisco.
Before committing to any cloud e-mail platform, companies ought to validate its success and momentum, Cain noted.
Cisco Mail competed with Google Apps, an online package of e-mail, scheduling and productivity tools. The companies are very much polar opposites. While Cisco aims to find new areas where it can charge a premium for its products and services, Google aims to make products and services a commodity, in order to boost advertising sales.
When the search giant launched Google Apps in 2007, it immediately set an extremely low price for the offering, Cain said in an e-mail.
On paper, it's evident that Cisco was fighting a losing battle. Google Apps offers a wider set of services with more storage for less money.
Cisco Mail's standard package, which included Outlook integration and 5GB of storage, cost $5 per user per month, while Google Apps for Business offered five times the e-mail storage for $50 per year.
Organizations are increasingly buying suites of collaboration tools, according to Cain.
Companies that want to move e-mail and other applications to the Web can choose other suites, including Microsoft's Exchange Online, which offers 25GB of storage for $5 per user per month. Today, Exchange Online is part of Microsoft's Business Productivity Online Standard Suite, which also includes SharePoint Online, Office Live Meeting and Office Communications Online. It will also be part of Microsoft's Office 365 online productivity package when it launches later this year.
Cisco said it will assist existing Cisco Mail customers with their transition to other e-mail alternatives. The company also said that it will offer customers support for the length of their contracts.


- Excel 2010 Cheat Sheet
- Register for this Computerworld Insider Cheat Sheet and gain access to hundreds of premium content articles, guides, product reviews and more.
- Finding the right cloud solutions for your organization
- HP is driving the evolution of what we call the Instant-On Enterprise. It is an enterprise that embeds technology into everything it does...
- Converged Infrastructure for Dummies
- As you know, everything is mobile, connected, interactive, and immediate. This is exactly why organizations need a highly agile IT infrastructure in order...
- Seven Priorities for Integrated Network Management - How HP Intelligent Management Center Delivers an Enterprise-class Solution
- This white paper describes the major requirements for network management solutions to help the organizations become more profitable, efficient and reliable.
Intel and the... - Building Cloud-Optimized Data Center Networks white paper
- Enterprises are turning to the Cloud to improve business agility, reduce expenses and accelerate business innovation. Cloud computing redefines the way IT assets...
- Gartner on the Network Infrastructure Market
- The network infrastructure market has evolved rapidly, from one in which most organizations adhered to a single-vendor architecture to a more business-driven network... All Networking White Papers
- The Higher-Bandwidth, Lower-Cost Connection of Choice: 10GBASE-T LAN on Motherboard
- Learn how Expedient, a cloud provider, is using 10 Gigabit Ethernet to boost its services and rein in costs.
- Distributed Database Security with Real-time Monitoring
- View this demo and learn how IBM InfoSphere Guardium database activity monitoring can help protect your sensitive data in distributed DBMS environments with...
- InfoSphere Warehouse Packs Demo
- These flash modules make warehousing more tangible and relevant to business users through detailed explanations of the InfoSphere Warehouse Packs.
- Delivery Management -- Extending Lifecycle Management
- Date: Wednesday, June 20, 2012, 1:00 PM EDT
Siloed organizations continue doing the wrong things and doing things wrong, leading to increased costs,... - Leverage automation today to reduce IT complexity
- Date: Tuesday, June 5, 2012, 2:00 PM EDT
Whether your B2B complexity is caused by multiple technologies due to M&A, business or application specific...
All Networking Webcasts