Google Apps for Business Email and Collaboration – The Alternative to Exchange Server
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Loading ...Google Apps for Business Email and Collaboration? A replacement for very expensive and high maintenance email systems like Exchange or Lotus Notes? Free or Premier?
As you might be able to tell from all the above questions, I was pretty skeptical at first till i tried it out for my self……and I must say that I am impressed!
Over the past weekend I performed my second roll out of Google Apps for a client, and for the first time ever in my 10+ years of being IT person the migration went off with out a issue and was flawless.
Google really has something here and the tools to assist the Engineer / Administrator are top notch and very well developed.
Though Google Apps has been around a while at first the tools which were provided for migrations as well as features in comparison were lacking. Now they offer better tools and the features are equivalent if not better than those that are provide with high-end, and high priced server software like Microsoft Exchange. Keep this in mind this is my opinion I have derived after deploying it for myself and one client so far.
Now don’t be mislead, Google Apps isn’t for the novice, or entry level IT person. The deployment of this “Software as a Service” should be performed by a highly trained and experienced IT person who will not need immediate support or interaction from Google . This is do to the fact that the standard version only offers community support, and the Premier offers telephone support on a emergency outage basis M-F 8:00am-8:00pm. Google asks that all other support issues or question submit a email request and you’ll receive a reply in 2-3 business day. So in other words it’s Google way of saying “We’ll provide you the cloud resources / software, but go to one of our partners or skilled IT professional for deployment and end user support”. I guess as the old saying goes, “You get what you pay for”; at the price of free for Standard or $50 / year per user for Premier are you going to complain? I think not.
I give Google Apps an A+ for software as a service, a D rating for support based on my own business experience, as
well as the comments I have received from my client.
Donald DAvanzo – Senior Systems Engineer – L&C Sunshine Technology Services (http://www.lcsunshine.com)
Try Google Apps Standard for free here: http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/group/index.html
