The NY Times has an interesting article about how many office workers forward work email into their web email accounts (Yahoo Mail, Gmail, Hotmail, etc). Employers are worried about the security implications, as well as legal issues. It's a classic case of web 2.0 consumer apps infiltrating the enterprise (the consumerization of the enterprise, as it was labeled last year). NYTimes writes:
"It is a battle of best intentions: productivity and convenience pitted against security and more than a little anxiety.
Corporate techies — who, after all, are paid to worry — want strict control over internal company communications and fear that forwarding e-mail might expose proprietary secrets to prying eyes. Employees just want to get to their mail quickly, wherever they are, without leaping through too many security hoops."
On the security side, enterprises have every right to be concerned. If you read our coverage of Finjan's latest Web Security report, you'll know that hackers are actively targeting - and profiting from - vulnerabilities in web apps these days. And in the case of organizations like hospitals (mentioned in the NYT article) there are significant privacy issues too when patient files get forwarded on.
The NYT also writes that Google has plans for a more secure enterprise version of Gmail later this year, but Microsoft "and other providers of traditional internal e-mail systems" may introduce ways to block web email use.
I'd like to do a survey of R/WW readers, who granted are a very tech-savvy lot :-) Do you ever access your office email from your personal web mail account?
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I have an Outlook rule that forwards all of my work email to a Gmail account specifically for work. It's for archival purposes only. I haven't used it often, but when I have, it's great. Gmail's search feature is just much better and faster than Outlook's.
Posted by: Sean | January 11, 2007 6:30 PM
Of course. Outlook is horrid, and has been for so many years. Especially the way that most corporate techno-weenies implement it in their enterprise. My wife works for a major corporation, and they deployed Outlook/Exchange back about 6-7 years ago (moving from PROFS). It was so bad, and got slower, worse, more complex, etc.
Meanwhile she has been blissfully using Netscape Communicator -> Thunderbird at home, no problems, easy to use, and it doesn't handcuff her or spread virii.
Posted by: Bob Denny | January 11, 2007 7:27 PM
Another option, which I already use in my own organization, is to.. substiture legacy emails solutions with professional Web based solutions.
We use Gmail for your domains, already
We are working with "early adopters" large organizations on a "yet to be announced" Gapps for enterprise which will allow organizations with 30 000 + users to switch in 2008 or 2009.
Posted by: Louis Naugès | January 12, 2007 2:16 AM
We're using Lotus Notes internally, and iNotes - Lotus' webmail - on a webserver where I work.
The webmail-thing has almost the same features as the client: notification of new mail, calendar stuff, same address book on web&client, fulltext search, unread marks etc.etc.
Every users mail account has 1GB storage available, - some up to 4GB. If they can justify they need more space, I'll give it to them.
With other 'shared systems' (like CRM, project mngt. etc.) email is just considered...well...email.
In fact, our company policy states that what's related to business, must be stored in the 'shared systems' for others to access. This includes emails to/from f.ex. customers.
I'm not aware of anyone who forward work-related mails to f.ex. Yahoo! (haven't seen it in the send/receive logs)
And why would you ?
The work-mail is available where there's internet access.
Posted by: Michael | January 12, 2007 2:32 AM
I set up my work email address server side to forward copy to my gmail account and a separate gmail account I set up just for work. I even set up "send as" account in gmail so I can send as my work address.
I actually fixed a problem recently by sending a copy of my boss' work email through a gmail account I created for and having him receive his email in outlook through the gmail account. Really helps with the spam he was getting.
Posted by: Shannon | January 12, 2007 12:33 PM
My workplace has set up OWA (Outlook Web Access) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outlook_Web_Access
It's got pretty much all the basics of Outlook available, e.g. your calender, tasks. So 95% of the time, it's got all the features I need for work email.
[ Now... if only we could get away from Exchange/Outlook and onto something more palatable ]
Posted by: Michael | January 13, 2007 10:48 AM
I dont see how this is a "It's a classic case of web 2.0 consumer apps infiltrating the enterprise". What's "Web 2.0" about forwarding corp. email to your Hotmail account?
This is also an old issue of control corp. data. The concern here is just not the use of personal email, but also of USB devices (iPod to Flash) and bringing-in a personal laptop to the office.
Indeed, this is why corporations love BlackBerry's Corporate Support - ability for admin. to remotely delete all email on the BB, block off access etc.
Posted by: Daniel R | January 13, 2007 5:57 PM
My company e-mail (OWA) doesn't support POP, so we can't forward our e-mail to anything. They also make us change our password every x number of days. With the last password change, they required at least one capital letter, in addition to its usual alphanumeric requirement. OWA sucks in many other ways as well (poor Spam filtering, can't bounce e-mails, can't set up rules, etc).
Posted by: Nani | January 14, 2007 5:37 AM
My organisation has blocked automatic forwarding of emails to internet email accounts due to security considerations. I would love to access my work email over gmail, but sadly its not possible. We use Lotus Notes for our email.
Posted by: Mayank | January 14, 2007 10:10 PM
Thanks to VPN/Webmail I can access my work email from anywhere. Then of course there is my PDA. I actually don't like forwarding work mail to my gmail. The two are separate and ne'er shall they meet.
Posted by: Deepak | January 15, 2007 9:49 AM
At a previous job, forwarding was "forbidden" unless you were a doctor with enough clout to demand it, in a battle where politics trumped HIPAA regulations. I used my exchange account for internal/affiliate email only, and a web mail account for all external communications. It really cut out the spam.
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