Over 3 million businesses have switched to Google Apps. I have a feeling the executives at Microsoft aren’t too happy about this. Here is the skinny on what you should know about moving to Google Apps.
The Pros
The Cons
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I very much like that your review focuses on features of Google Docs, a key part of Google Apps. Folks should know that Google Apps also includes gmail, calendar, secure instant messaging, free voice/video calling, sites, and more.
You are right that there is no trash can in the cloud … and Backupify is a great solution. Businesses back up their in-house servers, they should expect to do the same for the cloud.
If folks want to stay with the MS Office suite, there are tools like OffiSync http://www.buyoffisync.com" rel="nofollow">www.buyoffisync.com) that provide great integration for about $1 per month.
Google does offer customer support, but it is limited. The 7×24 toll free number is for critical issues only. There is also an email submission form.
MOST businesses work with a local reseller, however, who provide a full range of setup, migration, integration, training, and support services. We match our services to our customers’ needs and budgets.
No “trash can”?! There certainly is! It is called “Trash Can” and any Google Doc you delete will be moved to the trash can. If you then empty the trash can, it is indeed gone forever (unless you use a backup service).
This is identical to the desktop experience, so I’m not sure how this is a Con of Google Apps.
Also, customer support is available to all paid users, regardless of account size. If you pay, you get support. And, paying for Google Apps is MUCH cheaper than Microsoft’s price – just $50/user/year.
Allen is correct, trash can or not, businesses should backup their data. CloudAlly is the first cloud-based backup solution that provides automated daily backups for both Google Apps and Salesforce, as well as Chatter, individual Google Accounts and Yahoo to unlimited Amazon secure storage.
Your daily archives are retained for as long as you maintain your CloudAlly subscription enabling you to recover data from any point in time.
Visit http://www.cloudally.com">http://www.cloudally.com" rel="nofollow">http://www.cloudally.com">http://www.cloudally.com for more information and to start backing up your Google Apps and Salesforce data today with a 15-day free trial – no credit card required.
Murray Moceri
Marketing Director, CloudAlly
Biggest CON: Google continues to leave Google Apps users out in the cold, making services like Google+ unavailable to them. This is especially hard on the community of personal domain users (as opposed to businesses) that were cajoled into signing up and paying for Google Apps For Your Domain when it was introduced. I understand that enterprise users want to be sure of security before features like Google+ are made available on Google Apps. Google needs to segregate out the non-Enterprise users that are Premium (i.e. paid) users of Google Apps. Guess we’re the dummies for paying Google for something most people are getting for free, but the guaranteed up time, along with easy porting of personal domains to Google’s mail system were the enticements.