June 21, 2007

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

For more information contact:

Karen Wucher
Nemertes Research
Phone: 972-335-7028
Cell: 972-872-0828
Karen.Wucher@nemertes.com

Enterprises Moving Toward Web 2.0
Reservations Exist On Use of Open Source

MOKENA, IL -- June 21, 2007 – Enterprises increasingly are adopting Web 2.0 applications such as wikis, blogs, and RSS feeds, according to Nemertes Research benchmark, “Collaboration Applications.”The study, based on five months of in-depth interviews with more than 120 IT executives, found that 18% are using blogs, 32% are using wikis, and 23% are using RSS.

Enterprises are investigating both commercial and open-source solutions, with 26% of enterprises considering or using open-source applications, and 55% selecting vendors such as Microsoft and IBM as their strategic collaboration vendors.

The report, which tracks collaboration vendor performance and application adoption, indicates that although some IT executives will consider open source, many do not think it is enterprise ready and have concerns about support cost. IT executives say the ongoing maintenance of open-source applications would be higher than for commercial off-the-shelf products. Others are concerned about scalability, security, reliability and feature sets outweighing potential capital cost savings in their evaluations.

“So far, this lack of support is the gating factor for widespread deployment of open-source collaboration and communications applications in the enterprise,” said Irwin Lazar, Principal Analyst & Program Director, Convergence & Collaboration at Nemertes Research.

Shared workspaces are at the heart of most enterprise asynchronous collaboration strategies, providing a centralized means of storing files, tracking and managing tasks, and managing document revisions. Nemertes found that 65% of organizations have deployed a collaborative workspace in their organization, and another 5% are evaluating their use.

The benchmark also includes information on which vendors IT executives have selected as their strategic collaboration partners, and how they rated the performance of Cisco, IBM, and Microsoft.

About the Benchmark
The report is part of a nine-volume benchmark titled “Building a Successful Virtual Workplace,” which examines several key areas including WAN and branch-office infrastructure, convergence deployments, collaboration and unified-communications best practices and mobility strategies. In addition to the detailed research based on discussions with 120 IT executives, Nemertes also will look at the vertical market implications.

About Nemertes Research
Nemertes Research is research advisory firm that specializes in analyzing and quantifying the business value of emerging technologies. You can learn more about Nemertes Research at our website www.nemertes.com.

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