Stuart R. Crawford

Is Google Apps Sync “the Exchange Killer”?

I ran across this video (see below) the other day after hearing a couple of my respected peers in the Alberta technology community discussing Google Apps at a recent trade show.  I felt that I needed to address how Google Apps, Microsoft Exchange or even Microsoft Online Service fits into all the offerings available to small business today.  I decided to lock myself in my home office and do some research on how “Google Apps Premiere Edition” applications are actually lessening the gap between using Microsoft Outlook with Exchange and Microsoft Outlook with Google Mail.

In a recent post (a few weeks ago) I mentioned about some of the shortcomings with Google that I saw and how many small businesses using Microsoft Outlook would be better off with Exchange.  I still believe for the majority Outlook with Exchange is a better choice for many business.  I still believe Exchange offers some powerful services that even Google still doesn’t offer however the gap is getting smaller.  The truth to the argument is both companies are doing some great things which will benefit business in the end.  Just depends on which camp you belong and how you see things.  No one is wrong and everyone is right.

There is no doubt that Google is an innovative leader when it comes to cloud based technologies.  This is something even this flag waving Microsoft partner will not argue.  I still use Google to search for stuff online and playing around with Google Wave over the past few days is starting to impress me.  There is a huge difference to watch a small micro-business will use compared to even a larger small business and how each of the firms use and leverage IT everyday in their businesses.

What can Google Apps Sync do for a small business?

Those who have been on Microsoft Exchange have loved the centralized storage, enhanced security and even the integration with smartphones such as BlackBerry, iPhone and Windows Mobile.  Microsoft Outlook users send email, schedule meetings and maintain contacts all in Outlook and from the looks of things Google Apps will accomplish all of this with the Google Apps Sync with Microsoft Outlook less two critical components task management and notes.

Sure there are cost savings for any corporation who uses Google Apps and the Google mail platform.  Gone are the expenses of purchasing, maintaining and in a few years upgrading the Exchange environment.  The $50 per user each year cost (which includes Postini anti-spam and a whopping 25 GB of storage per user) is pretty reasonable, however when you compare Microsoft Small Business Server which comes with Exchange and if you strip away the maintenance (which you still need to do with Google Apps) it is a wash and you will actually save money over the long run with Exchange server in a SBS environment.  The old arguments of backup, storage and other limiting physical factors are disappearing.

What about data storage?  Sure the Google infrastructure sits in on the Internet but where exactly is your small business data physically located.  For those Canadian small business owners concerned about data sitting outside of Canada, well  Google may not be the right solution.  Bulletproof’s hosted Exchange services works out to be a better solution because our servers are located in Canada, out of the reach of “The Patriot Act“.  Perhaps not a big deal for some but it is a major concern for those firms who need to be cautious about compliance, privacy and other legislation on where exactly your data sits.

According to the Google Apps Premiere features (click here to read them) even BlackBerry Enterprise Server is supported.  However, it looks like you must have your own BES or a hosted BES offering which would allow you to install Google’s BlackBerry connector. So not a big savings there, you still need to manage another server.

At the time of this blog post, it appears that Google apps does not support Notes and Tasks in Microsoft Outlook.  For some people (me included) this is a major issue.

Google Apps Sync may be a great fit for some small business and not such a great fit for others.   This is where Bulletproof InfoTech can help.