Networkworld.com has recently conducted a study asking decision-makers in midsized and large organizations in North America about how concerned they were on a variety of issues. Here are some of the results:

Email archiving:
- 36% of decision-makers are more concerned about the need to archive e-mail today than they were 12 months ago.
- 30% are more concerned about e-discovery issues than they were a year ago. Only 12% and 13% of decision makers are less concerned about e-mail archiving and e-discovery, respectively.

Security issues:
- 12% are more concerned today than a year ago about this eventuality, while more than twice as many are less concerned
- Decision makers are significantly more concerned about spyware infecting their networks while even more are concerned about Web-based threats and the amount of spam that they receive.

Forrester Research has a new report out that offers some insights into the communications technologies that enterprises are adopting -- and are still holding off on. There's also a provocative data point on how involved business unit executives are in Unified Communications purchases.

The respondents were asked how much influence three types of roles have in UC purchasing decisions. The biggest influencers were IT executives, not surprisingly: 26% of respondents said these folks exert final decision-making authority, while 52% reported that IT execs wield "heavy influence" on UC buying. Notably, this was very close to the numbers regarding the influence of telecom executives: 23% of respondents said telecom was the final UC decision-maker for their enterprise, and another 51% ranked telecom as a "heavy" influencer.[...]

The factor that Forrester calls out as important is the last category, "A business unit executive who works with the telecom and/or IT departments." And this is pretty noteworthy: 15% of the survey respondents said this type of exec holds final decision-making authority for UC in their enterprises, another 43% see "heavy influence" here, and 34% say such execs hold "some influence" on the UC buying decsion.

According to a new survey, almost two thirds of business users have to manage their own e-mail inboxes to stay under corporate capacity limits. And for almost a third, those limits are a paltry 100MB or less.

C2C sponsored the third-party survey to draw attention to its email data management solution called Archive One, but to me the interesting point is just how pathetic most business email systems are -- especially compared to business and even consumer email solutions available in the cloud, often for free.

Among these latest survey findings:
  - 65 percent of survey respondents contend with mailbox quotas and are forced to self-manage their email to stay operational.
  - 66 percent take their own measures to save email messages in order to ensure they aren’t lost, with a majority storing email outside their company email system, in some cases even in personal/home email accounts.
  - 67 percent need to search for an email that is more than three months old at least once a month, with 28 percent spending time searching about once a week or even daily.

The survey also found that those who self-manage email to stay within quotas frequently delete messages, delete attachments, and/or create a PST file – a method used in more than half of organizations surveyed.

When U.S. Cellular's chief operating officer, Jay Ellison, imposed a "no email Friday" rule at his company, he thought it would ease workers' overload. Instead, he got a rebellion:

A growing number of employers, including U.S. Cellular, Deloitte & Touche and Intel, are imposing or trying out "no email" Fridays or weekends. While the bans typically allow emailing clients and customers or responding to urgent matters, the normal flow of routine internal email is halted. Violators are hit with token fines, or just called out by the boss.

The limits aim to encourage more face-to-face and phone contact with customers and co-workers, raise productivity or just give employees a reprieve from the ever-rising email tide. Emails sent by individual corporate users are projected to increase 27% this year, to an average of 47 a day, up from 37 in 2006, says Radicati Group, a Palo Alto, Calif., research and consulting firm. And one-third of users feel stressed by heavy email volume, according to a 2007 study of 177 people by the University of Glasgow and Paisley University in Scotland. Many check email as often as 30 to 40 times an hour, the study showed.

Surfing the web unprotected will leave the average web user with 70 spam messages each day, according to an experiment by security firm McAfee. It invited 50 people from around the world, including five from the UK, to surf without spam filters.

The experiment revealed that UK residents are most likely to be targeted by the infamous Nigerian e-mails and "adult" spam. One UK participant received 5,414 spam e-mails during the month-long trial. But the US still tops the global spam league. Participants in the US received a total of 23,233 spam e-mails during the course of the experiment compared to 15,856 for the second most spammed country - Brazil. In the UK, the five participants racked up 11,965 spam messages during the course of the experiment. Germany attracted the least spam, with just 2,331 junk messages.

GLOBAL SPAM LEAGUE: US - 23,233; Brazil - 15,856; Italy - 15,610; Mexico - 12,229; UK - 11,965; Australia - 9,214; The Netherlands - 6,378; Spain - 5,419; France - 2,597; Germany - 2,331.

TOP TEN MOST POPULAR SPAM CATEGORIES: Advertisements; Financial; Health and medicine; Adult services; Free stuff; Education; IT related; Money making; Credit cards; Watch adverts.

Using virtualisation software will not just save money and space, but also help optimise IT for business needs.

CIOs who have converted to virtualization are keen to praise its cost benefits and preach the green benefits of its power savings, but for many the major benefits are yet to be realized. The virtualization process provides massive opportunity to align IT with the business, and CIOs who are ahead of the virtualization curve are taking that opportunity.

Most CIOs who have gone down the virtualization route are still in the process of virtualizing their server farm. The early adopters are going beyond that, using the virtualized structure to be more responsive to the business. They are also the first who are considering how to manage being victims of their own success and how to continue to be responsive to the opportunities offered by virtualization.

Once servers are virtualized, IT staff can provision servers in minutes, test new systems while the servers are online, and install security patches without downtime. Chris Tunnecliffe, group infrastructure architect at global reinsurance firm Aspen, describes the day-to-day benefits he has seen after virtualizing servers. "The service improvements are vast. We don't have to constantly speak to the business about downtime. We are a true 24/7 business."

IT professionals may initially be awestruck by the promises of virtualization, but Gartner analysts warn that awe could turn into upset when organizations start to suffer from seven nasty side effects. Here are the reasons Gartner says virtualization is no IT cure-all:

1. Magnified failures. In the physical world, a server hardware failure typically would mean one server failed and backup servers would step in to prevent downtime. In the virtual world, depending on the number of virtual machines residing on a physical box, a hardware failure could impact multiple virtual servers and the applications they host.

2. Degraded performance. Companies looking to ensure top performance of critical applications often dedicate server, network and storage resources for those applications, segmenting them from other traffic to ensure they get the resources they need. With virtualization, sharing resources that can be automatically allocated on demand is the goal in a dynamic environment. At any given time, performance of an application could degrade, perhaps not to a failure, but slower than desired.

Two in five small to medium businesses (SMBs) say virtualisation is the best way to bypass a potential recession.

Of 100 companies questioned by internet service provider Star, 43 per cent cited virtualisation tools as a key way to protect their organisation from the current economic climate. A further 21 per cent of respondents said that a converged approach to new technologies was the best strategy for dealing with the situation.

The availability of broadband was the most important factor for 17 per of respondents, while 10 per cent believed new Web 2.0 technologies would play an important role in battling economic instability.

"One of the biggest challenges facing small businesses today is access to finance, so as the economic slowdown continues, the number one priority is to do more with less, making the most of existing technology investments and using technology to respond quickly to changing business conditions,” said Ben White, chief executive of Star. “Virtualisation helps achieve those business needs."

The ability to 'work smarter' was the most powerful driver behind making new technology purchases, as cited by 43 per cent of those questioned.

Many employees in the modern workplace simply assume their electronic communications are being read by IT administrators. A new study released by IT security firm Cyber-Ark Software shows that those assumptions aren't too far off base.

The survey of 300 senior IT professionals at mid-market and enterprise firms yielded the disturbing news that a third admit that they or fellow administrators have "used the admin password to get at information that is otherwise confidential or sensitive," while nearly half say they have "accessed information on a system that was not relevant" to their jobs.

Presenting the results of their annual "Trust, Security and Passwords" at the recent Infosecurity Expo in London, Newton, Mass.-based CyberArk stressed the scandal of the two questions concerning snooping by IT staff, but the bulk of the study concerns more mundane areas of data leakage prevention such as the frequency with which passwords are changed on computer networks.

Most small and large enterprises are uncertain of the benefits of a unified communications implementation, according to a recent survey of 2008 networking plans from Forrester Research.

Fifty-five percent of the 2,187 North American and European companies queried said there is "confusion about the value" of unified communications for their company. Only 11% of the firms have already deployed it. Another 16% are rolling out and 57% are evaluating or piloting it, Forrester found.

"We were not surprised," says Forrester analyst Ellen Daley, author of the survey's report. "There's been a 21% increase in UC pilots since 2007 but no increase in firms buying UC. A lot of people are talking about UC, a lot more are tipping their toe in; but at the same time they're all saying they're not sure about the value,"  she says.

Daley says Forrester receives inquiries from clients regularly asking simply: What is UC?

Tech vendors have made headway in the war on spam, yet spammers are returning volley with sheer numbers. Perhaps it's time for more drastic measures?

"The biggest reason we're not winning the war on spam has little to do with the anti-spam vendors," says Logan Harbaugh, a Test Center analyst. "It's more about the ever-increasing volume of spam."

Anti-spam email appliances work anonymously on the frontlines of IT security, blocking millions of pieces of spam (or unwanted e-mail) every day. And anti-spam vendors are doing a decent job: According to the Test Center, email appliances today catch an average of 96.1 per cent of spam, up from 95 per cent two years ago.

But vendor advancements pale in comparison to the swelling ranks of spammers. A Symantec report released this month shows that spam is on the rise. In March, more than 80 per cent of all email was spam, up from 78.5 per cent in January and February. Overall, spam volume is up 20 per cent compared to last year. The report also warns of a popular spammer trick called backscattering, which is the practice of bouncing emails around the globe until they're received.

Networkworld.com publishes the conclusions of an extensive study they have conducted on email, web and instant messaging security issues within North-American mid-sized and large enterprises. Among the findings of the study, there were:

  - Two out of five organizations has had a virus, worm or Trojan successfully infiltrate their network through e-mail.
  - More than two in five organizations have experienced corruption of one or more e-mail databases.

On behalf of Proofpoint, Inc., Forrester Consulting fielded an online survey of email decision makers at large US, UK, German, French and Australian companies. Respondents were asked about their concerns, priorities and plans related to the content of email leaving their organizations, as well as related concerns about the risks associated with mobile devices, blogs and message boards, media sharing sites and other electronic communications technologies.

Forrester gathered a total of 424 responses from companies with 1,000 or more employees, including 301 US, 32 UK, 30 German, 31 French and 30 Australian companies. This report summarizes the findings of the 2008 study.

Key Findings, US 2008
   - 22% of US companies with 20,000 or more employees surveyed employ staff whose primary or exclusive job function is to read or otherwise monitor outbound email content.
   - More than 1 in 3 (38.0%) US companies surveyed perform regular audits of outbound email content.
   - 44% of US companies investigated a suspected email leak of confidential or proprietary information in the past 12 months. 40% investigated a suspected violation of privacy or data protection regulations in the past 12 months.

Despite a decline in spending on business software given a waning U.S. economy, an April 2008 survey of IT organizations shows that virtualization software spending has increased.

The survey of about 2,000 respondents by Rockville, Md.-based ChangeWave Research found that overall software spending is on the decline, with only 12% of respondents saying that they will invest in software over the next 90 days, and one in four saying they will spend less. But at the same time, virtualization investments are on the rise, increasing 12 percentage points from 58% in January to 70% today, the survey showed.

VMware Inc.'s April 2008 earnings report is evidence of this; revenues for the first quarter were $438 million, an increase of 69% compared with the first quarter of 2007.

Check out the full article to find out who continues to dominate the industry and why virtualization spending remains strong.

Online firm Habeas released its annual study of consumer attitudes Wednesday, which showed that email remains the "primary method of communications in personal and business capacities."

The survey found that 67% of respondents prefer email to communicate online, and 65% feel that will still be the case in five years. And vis-à-vis a younger generation "aging out of email," the survey found that 65% in the 18-to-34 demo "will favor email to communicate with businesses in five years."

The research also found that there is a rise in consumer concern about email security issues--with 69% of respondents worried about "being victimized by email fraud scams," up from 62% a year ago. And perhaps giving marketers pause about advertising on mobile devices, it found that 43% of respondents were concerned about spam and virus threats on their wireless devices, up from 36% in 2007.

The leading technology research firm, The Radicati Group Inc., publishes an extensive white paper reviewing the strategic importance of email messaging systems in today’s business environments and the AXIGEN Mail Server .

Email is a vital communication channel for organizations of all sizes. Having a reliable and efficient messaging system can improve employees’ productivity, reduce operating costs, and give any company an edge over its competition. 

The number of messages exchanged between users continues to grow quickly. It is projected to increase from about 156 messages/day per user in 2008 to about 233 messages/day per user in 2012. Such a quick increase in volume over the next few years will influence many companies to take a critical look at their solutions, even if they may be currently satisfied with their messaging systems.

Top Rules for an Effective Email Communication

Email is one of today’s most widely employed means of communication. Whether for personal or business purposes, email is extensively used throughout every day activities, its speed and reliability making it the communication channel of choice for millions of people worldwide. Figures on email usage are impressive, and growing, as reported by major technology research companies.

According to Email Marketing Reports¹, The Radicati Group² estimates 1.2 billion email users worldwide in 2007. Figures are expected to reach up to 1.6 billion by 2011, as stated in a report issued by the company in October, 2007. In a previous study, dated October 2006, Radicati also estimated that approximately 183 billion emails were sent each day in 2006 and that wireless email users would grow "from 14 million in 2006 up to 228 million in 2010". For the business environment, Ferris Research³ estimated the number of business email users at around 780 million in 2007.

Email communication is certainly popular, but what are rules and guidelines bringing the best of it?

Checking email, reading email and answering email can take up hours of time if you let it. But only if you let it. Here are four simple email management rules to help you keep control of your inbox:

1) Let your email program manage your email as much as possible.
Email management starts with setting up and using filters. If you're using an email program such as Outlook, you can configure email rules to send your spam directly to the trash - meaning that you don't waste your time reading and deleting it.

The definition of SPAM has changed from the permission-based regulatory definition of "unsolicited commercial email" to a subjective, perception-based definition centered on consumer dissatisfaction, according to a recent survey.

Jointly conducted by Chicago-based Q Interactive and Warren, R.I.-based MarketingSherpa, the survey's goal was to reveal consumers' perceptions of what they consider to be spam, why they report emails as spam and what they think happens when the "report spam" button is clicked.

An overwhelming number of consumers misuse and misunderstand the definition of spam, ultimately hurting legitimate marketers--but also consumers themselves who are seeking the messages they want, but instead are automatically being unsubscribed.

There is confusion among consumers regarding what they believe will happen as a result of clicking the "report spam" button. Over half of respondents (56%) reported it will "filter all email from that sender"--while 21% believe it will notify the sender that the recipient did not find that specific email useful, so the sender will "do a better job of mailing me" in the future. About 47% believe they will be unsubscribed from the list by clicking "report spam."

This white paper will explain how businesses can significantly reduce the costs of their email communication while continuing to provide users with a best-in-class messaging and collaboration solution.

Introduction
Today, email is absolutely mission-critical. Communication and collaboration keep your business running. Email and electronically enabled collaboration have become so embedded in normal day-to-day operations that many businesses simply could not function without them. These services enable everything from productivity enhancing collaboration between employees to external communications with customers and business partners and demand 24x7 availability.

Many businesses, however, have found that the cost of providing employees with the latest in messaging and collaboration technology is rapidly escalating. To meet modern business needs, mail servers have had to become more complex – and with that additional complexity come additional management burdens and costs. Furthermore, some mail servers have an upgrade process that is both extremely complex and extremely costly and which may necessitate the purchase of replacement server hardware. Combined, these factors place a considerable drain on corporate resources. The problem is especially severe for small and medium sized businesses (SMBs) which usually do not have access to the same financial or technical resources as large enterprises. In fact, the cost of upgrading has forced many SMBs to expose themselves to risk by continuing to use an older and unsupported version of their mail server.
 
The escalating cost of email
Empowering workers with sophisticated communication and collaboration technology is not a luxury, it is a necessary cost of doing business. However, it is also a cost that has escalated to a point that many businesses are finding difficult to bear. Take Microsoft Exchange Server™ 2007, for example. Exchange Server is the most widely used business email platform and is undoubtedly an extremely capable product – but it is also highly expensive.

Three researchers at the Air Force Institute of Technology -- James Okolica, Gilbert Peterson, and Robert Mills -- have published a paper that outlines an algorithm for mining email data and identifying patterns of transmission that might tell managers when employees are keeping a secret.

In a nutshell, the algorithm identifies email topics of interest that are communicated outside the organization, but never shared with others inside the organization. The identification of such topics indicates that employees "either have a secret interest in the topic or generally feel alienated from the organization," the paper says.

In the study, researchers applied a data mining concept called Probabilistic Latent Semantic Indexing (PLSI), which has been used to extract specific information from a large body of data. By adding users to the body of data being studied, the researchers were able to identify patterns of content exchanged between specific users.

E-mail worms, not long ago the scourge of the Internet, have declined sharply in 2007, a security company has revealed. According to UTM security vendor Fortinet, the incidence of mass-mailing worms has declined by 5 percent each month since the start of the year, putting the once-feared worm well below other types of attack in terms of volume.

The figures come from the company's The State of Malware report for June 2007. Viruses, spyware and software exploits have remained roughly stable in volume throughout the same period, while Trojans have been climbing since February to represent the number one threat.

Much less common mobile, IM, Linux, and non-mailed Win32 worms have all shown marked declines, albeit from relatively low levels.

PCWorld: Researchers at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) said they've discovered a critical weakness in the spam ecosystem that could be used to help cut off the promise of economic returns fuelling the huge growth in spam levels:

In a paper delivered at the USENIX Security 2007 conference in Boston, the UCSD researchers said that while spammers use vastly powerful, distributed delivery networks to pump out junk e-mail, it's quite another story for the internet scams that form the real heart of the spam mechanism.

Such scams, for instance selling pharmaceutical products over a website, are typically hosted on a single website, the researchers found. What's more, a single site might host several scams and might also act as a spam relay.

Why use a Linux mail server? Check out the some of the advantages below.

• Supports POP3, IMAP and Web mail access. These are standard services that ideally should be available in any mail system for flexible email access.
• Is extremely fast, reliable and scalable. Linux performs well and its uptime is very, very good.
• Does not require expensive hardware. Thanks to its fast and efficient services, expensive high end hardware is not necessary.
• Is very secured. The Linux operating system is very difficult to exploit. The National Security Agency even contributed to allow Linux to support even stronger levels of security.

Here is an article that analyzes the results of independent tests performed by PC Magazine Romania comparing the AXIGEN Mail Server against two open source alternatives, Sendmail (with Dovecot) and Postfix (with Cyrus).