A study by analyst firm Gartner has found that 8.5% of global public companies use cloud email from Microsoft’s Office 365 service, with just 4.7% using Google Apps for Work.

The remaining 87% of companies surveyed have on-premises, hybrid, hosted or private cloud email provided by smaller vendors.

Overall, the firm found that the cloud email market is still in the early stages of adoption with 13% of identified publicly listed companies using Microsoft or Google – the two main cloud email vendors.

“Although it is still early days for cloud email adoption, both Microsoft and Google have achieved significant traction among enterprises of different sizes, industries and geographies,” said Nikos Drakos, Research Vice President at Gartner.

“Companies considering cloud email should question assumptions that public cloud email is not    appropriate in their region, size or industry. Our findings suggest that many varied organizations are already using cloud email, and the number is growing rapidly,” he said.

Among the organizations using cloud email from Google and Microsoft, Microsoft is ahead in most industries, the data showed – particularly in regulated areas such as utilities, energy and aerospace.

Where Google is ahead, it is in industries with more competition and less regulation, such as software publishing, retail, advertising, media, education and travel.