Computer technology evolves through mega-cycles – mainframe, client-server and now cloud. Each phase is based on a distinct architectural approach and deployment method.
During the client-server cycle, software was delivered in two packages: a plug-in or add-on of executable code at the client [.exe] and a package with full middleware stack at the server. Client-server was a vast improvement over mainframe. By splitting functionality between graphics processing on the desktop and logic/database on the server, client-server software could support smart fast color terminals that passed only data to the large application servers in the data center over the network. At the time, networks were slow so that limiting network connectivity to just data, not graphics or logic, made response times acceptable.
The brilliance of the cloud architecture is that it doesn’t split software functionality into two parts like the client-server architecture. The presentation/logic/database layers of an application are all handled in and by the cloud. Yet the user experience is as good, if not better than, client-server because of advances in browser technology and network speed. Client-server applications were built for network speeds of 64KB per second; FIOS now can provide speeds of 870 MB per second.
By centralizing the software in the cloud, users can focus on using software – not installing software, updating software, backing up software, securing software and troubleshooting software.
Every computer mega-cycle can be divided into four phases during which innovation focuses on different layers of the ‘stack’:
- Infrastruture – operating systems and languages, then
- Platform – middleware and security, then
- Application – CRM, ERP, Supply Chain and finally
- Integration – sharing data between applications.
With Salesforce’s acquisition of Mulesoft last week, it is clear that cloud technology has entered its final Integration Phase, what industry experts like Gartner call, Integration as a Service.
In the Salesforce email integration ecosystem where Match My Email plays, the transition to Integration as a Service is in full swing. Customers increasingly are recognizing drawbacks of using the client-server plug-ins and add-ons. Customers are switching to pure cloud technologies like Match My Email. They have experienced firsthand the frustrations of using the plug-ins of the last generation market leaders: Outlook for Salesforce, Gmail for Salesforce, Salesforce INBOX, Lightning for Outlook, Lightning for Gmail, Cirrus Insight, Zynbit, Linkpoint360, and Inside Sales’ Absolute Automation.
End-users are complaining that plug-ins and add-ons slow down their email clients – Outlook, Gmail and Apple Mail – because they introduce a lot of extra, often inefficient, executable code into Outlook, Gmail and Apple Mail. End-users are frustrated as the ‘Spinning Wheel of Death’ in Outlook cranks on and on for 5, 10, even 20 seconds as their add-on attempts to connect to their Salesforce account and retrieve data. They are recognizing that adding a plug-in to a mailbox – whether on a desktop, laptop, tablet or smartphone – will result in frequent crashes, freezes and the inconvenience of periodic updates as Windows responds to security threats.
Admins have learned that plug-ins are a nuisance to deploy. The average desktop install takes about 15 minutes per end-user all-in – scheduling, explaining, downloading, configuring and debugging. In a large organization with dozens or hundreds of users, fifteen minutes per user means a very time-consuming roll-out.
The better alternative is Integration as a Service based on pure cloud technology. Match My Email is such a solution. Users access Match My Email by clicking a tab inside of Salesforce. Match My Email is invisible on the user’s desktop or smartphone; it is visible in the Salesforce cloud. Match My Email cannot slow down Outlook, Gmail or Apple Mail or cause them to crash or freeze because it connects to the user’s mailbox in the cloud, not on the desktop or smartphone.
With the Salesforce Office365 edition of Match My Email, admins can deploy end-user accounts remotely by clicking on an Activation button. There is nothing to install, just click and go. With the Gmail edition, admins can add and delete user accounts centrally but the end-users still have to authenticate to Gmail using OAuth the first time they log in. OAuth authentication involves three clicks and nothing to install. IMAP email account users log into the app for the first time with username and password.
Match My Email is rated 4.9 out of 5.0 on the AppExchange. Match My Email works with any email system or device including Office 365, Google Suite, Outlook, MacMail, Outlook on Mac, Outlook to Gmail, Gmail, GoDaddy, Rackspace, IPswitch, Open-Xchange, Zimbra, Zoho and 50+ other IMAP compatible email systems.
If you would like to see Match My Email in action, sign up for a Live Demo at https://www.matchmyemail.com/schedule-your-live-demo/. Live Demos are the fastest and most efficient way to see the power of cloud-based email integration for Office 365 and Salesforce, Gmail, Apple Mail, Outlook, Lotus, GoDaddy, and Open-Xchange.
