Organisations have been migrating from Mimecast to reduce costs, achieve seamless integration with existing platforms (especially Microsoft 365) and centralise security. A more streamlined, cost-effective, and holistic approach to email security, archiving and compliance can be achieved within their existing cloud infrastructure.

An analysis of our overall client base (completed projects or in the pipeline) and the revenue represented demonstrates the ongoing trend of a year-on-year increase. Specifically, there has been 200% growth in the number of Mimecast-related projects and significantly higher growth in revenues from Mimecast projects over the same period. 

Clients are reaching out to us for the following reasons:  

• Dissatisfaction with Mimecast costs and their level of service. Many of these customers aren’t being actively displaced by competitors but rather are driving the change themselves.  Many ask us if we can help them move without having decided where the data will ultimately go.
• Competitive take-outs. Over the years, the security and archiving market has matured.  A host of viable alternatives now exist and are driving change.  Mimecast security is often the main target for these competitors and if the client switches security vendor, then the requirement to also re-home the Mimecast archive typically follows.  In addition, setting security aside, archiving vendors are also directly targeting the archive side of things directly.
• In the SME space, Barracuda is a popular target while enterprises and highly regulated organisations are choosing Proofpoint.  
• Across all organisation types, Office 365 is increasingly being considered for long term data retention and eDiscovery. Approximately 50% of all our Mimecast migrations are going to O365 with the rest split across cloud-based specialist vendors.

Key business drivers for industry wide migrations – Like-for-like replacements

• Cost-effectiveness. With seemingly constant price increases, alternative specialist archiving competitors can be far more cost-effective, even once the cost of the data migration itself is taken into account.
• Enhanced performance – Clients in certain industries require advanced search, along with supervision capabilities.  Some archiving platforms are also taking advantage of developments in AI that can derive further value from the data that is being archived.

Key business drivers for industry wide migrations – O365

• Cost-effectiveness. Many organisations find that using the built-in email security and archiving features of their primary platform (such as Microsoft 365) eliminates the need for a separate, third-party vendor like Mimecast, thereby reducing overall costs.  
• Seamless Integration. Managing multiple, disjointed platforms is time consuming and complex for IT teams. Migrating data to a unified environment allows for a single administration console, simplifying management, and improving operational efficiency.
• Unified Governance and Compliance. Collaborative tools like Microsoft Teams and SharePoint generate a significant amount of business content. By consolidating all content, including email archives, into one ecosystem, businesses can apply consistent governance and compliance policies across all data, improving eDiscovery and reducing risk.  
• Advanced and Proactive Threat Protection. Microsoft 365's native threat detection capabilities are continuously improving, leveraging AI and real-time intelligence to stay ahead of emerging threats. Some companies are moving to alternative dedicated platforms like Proofpoint and Barracuda for their specific advanced threat protection needs.  
• Data Sovereignty. The location of data and who has jurisdiction over it has become a critical factor in cybersecurity decisions for many organisations, particularly those in Europe. Migrating data allows companies to better control where their data is stored to meet specific regulatory and geopolitical requirements.
• Eliminating Legacy System Burden. Some companies are moving from Mimecast to avoid the high costs and complexity associated with mass data extractions, which is not a standard, built-in feature of the Mimecast platform.  

Choosing the right email archiving solution - a competitor comparison

How do you choose the right solution?  

• For cost-effectiveness on a Microsoft 365 stack: If you have already invested in Microsoft 365 and have basic archiving requirements, using Exchange Online Archiving can be the most budget-friendly option.  
• For advanced AI-driven compliance:  If your organisation is a large enterprise with stringent regulatory needs and a variety of communication channels to archive, Proofpoint offers market-leading, intelligent compliance tools.  
• For SMB-focused, easy-to-use archiving.  If you are a small or medium-sized business prioritising simplicity and cost-efficiency, Barracuda provides a straightforward and well-regarded solution.  
• For vendor flexibility and control. If you want granular control over security, encryption, and data location, a vendor like Veritas might offer greater flexibility than a pure SaaS provider like Mimecast.   

How we help   

Members of our team have been working in the data archiving space since 1997.  Since then, we have been designing, implementing & supporting global data archiving solutions for many of the world’s major organisations.  Since 2006, we have been migrating archived data between platforms and as a result, we have a wealth of experience and technical skills across a large range of archiving platforms.

Our professional services and specialist migration tools include TrueSwift Migration Factory™, a fully hosted, fully managed solution that facilitates fast and efficient data extraction from source platforms to their new targets.

Typical projects would require clients to provision and host a range of temporary infrastructure that may include Windows servers, SQL Server, storage, and network bandwidth, as well as provide remote access to facilitate project delivery and management. This burden is lifted with Migration Factory™ as all overheads are transferred away from the client’s environment.  

Large scale archived data migrations are coordinated and automated, significantly reducing the load on internal resources and infrastructure. Organisations improve performance and reduce project timeframes as manual processes are automated and multiple tools are integrated.

Read More:   

Key stages for Mimecast migration success.  

https://trueswift.co.uk/resources/blog/mime 

TrueSwift Migration Factory   

https://trueswift.co.uk/solutions/tmf