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Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) released on Tuesday a plug-in to its Google Apps arsenal that could be the last push needed to nudge some businesses into fully adopting its cloud computing services.
The product, Google Apps Sync for Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) Outlook, works with the Premier version of Google apps, which costs US$50 per business user per year, as well as the free educational version, which is limited to 50 user accounts. The software plug-in will allow enterprise users to adopt Google's email services without without forcing a migration to the Gmail user interface, according to Google.
"Barriers to adopting cloud computing have been falling away over the last few years," Andrew Kovacs, spokesperson for Google, told TechNewsWorld. "Now, broadband connections are ubiquitous, and the recent release of Gmail Offline removed another barrier to migrating. There is no reason now for businesses not to switch."
A vocal yet small minority in the overall enterprise workforce -- about 5 percent -- balk at giving up Microsoft Outlook, he explained. Google Apps Sync for Microsoft Outlook is designed the get them into Google products without changing the interface.
Piecemeal Adoption
Rather than offer businesses a take-it-or-leave-it proposition in migrating completely to the Google cloud, companies might now use some or all of Google's services. For instance, users are able to keep their Outlook client for email and other tasks, rather than take the time to learn the Gmail interface.
At the same time, back-end functions and data storage would go to Google. This would free up a company's own servers from running Microsoft software, said Kovacs. Google has seen a steady swelling of interest in adopting its online services over the last few years, he said.
Who's Adopting Whom?
In essence, Google's engineers pulled off an end-run around Microsoft. Google developed the plug-in technology without bartering any business deals with Microsoft or entering into any special cooperation, Kovacs said.
However, Microsoft denied that Google's development represents a business threat. Instead, Microsoft sees Google as merely following existing licensing agreements.
Microsoft was encouraged by the continued support for Outlook from leading email providers, said Eron Kelly, senior director of the business online services group for Microsoft, noting that Google has joined some of the most popular email server providers, including IBM (NYSE: IBM), Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL), Yahoo (Nasdaq: YHOO) and Zimbra, which have offered connectivity to Outlook for years.
"After the recent Exchange ActiveSync licensing agreement, this is a continuation of Google's adoption of Microsoft's market-leading email technologies to piece together a messaging experience across the PC, phone and Web," Kelly told TechNewsWorld. "All Google needs to do is host Exchange and they could offer the full meal-deal. Specifically, with Microsoft Online Services, we've got a great partner program with over 4,000 partners across the globe, and we'd welcome them to join."
Sour Grapes?
Customers who migrate to Google's cloud will not receive all of Outlook's features. The draw will likely be the ability to simply manage their email accounts from one place, according to Microsoft.
"With Gmail as a back-end to Outlook, customers will not experience symmetry across the Web, PC and Phone. This is not full MAPI support across all functionality, which means there will be feature gaps for users," Kelly said.
Google's Outlook connector only provides the common Outlook features. For example, when organizing email, Gmail only offers the ability to tag email. Outlook's approach is to allow users to tag and/or file email, Kelly explained.
In this case, Gmail forces users to adopt their metaphor, which could cause confusion, he said.
Also, Gmail does not permit users to organize their in-box by conversation, to, or from, as they can in Outlook. Also, Google's approach requires a user-wide rollout which is a burden to IT, according to Kelly.
That equals extra costs for IT to train and maintain what is effectively a different experience for the Web users and the client users -- or for the same person who wants to use both, he said.
Google Features
Key features that are included in the Google Apps Sync software include email, calendar, and contacts synchronization. For email, the plug-in uses the offline Gmail protocol, which is much faster than IMAP or other methods, according to Google.
Free/Busy lookup and Global Address List functionality enable scheduling regardless of whether users on either end have Outlook's calendar or Google Calendar.
A two-click data migration tool lets employees copy
existing data from Exchange or Outlook into Google Apps.
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