Could the postal strike benefit shared web hosting users?

With the Royal Mail workers on strike, many businesses that are reliant on direct mail will suffer. This situation could be beneficial for the technology sector and perhaps some shared web hosting users.

Technology editor at IT PRO Benny Har-Even said that if the Royal Mail proves to be unreliable then organisations will look for alternatives and technology can play a role in this.

"They might have traditionally relied on sending stuff in the mail […] but they might look at technology. This is a grey area for security […] but there are ways of sending things securely," Mr Har-Even commented.

Talking about whether cloud computing could be used to move information around effectively, he claimed that people are unsure about how they share data over the internet. Mr Har-Even pointed to Windows 7, which has technology integrated into it designed to make it simpler for firms to connect with one another securely.

Secretary of state for business, innovation and skills Lord Peter Mandelson recently spoke to the House of Lords on the negotiations to avert national strikes. He referred to the Hooper Review, saying that it indicated the Royal Mail needs to change as the postal market transforms. People are turning towards text, email and direct debit, he claimed.

"Business will be quick to recognise that while you can picket a delivery office to stop the service or refuse to deliver letters, you cannot picket the ever-present internet," Lord Mandelson asserted.

He added that while he would continue to encourage a settlement over the dispute, he could not "disinvent the internet".

To highlight just how important communication over the internet now is, the ExactTarget 2009 Email Utilisation Whitepaper revealed that the rate at which online consumers are increasing email usage, in comparison to the speed at which it is decreasing, is more than double the rate for both social media and text messaging.

Written by Sarah Woolf.