Google Apps Sync for Microsoft Outlook Takes on Exchange Server
Jun 9th, 2009 by MrGroove
Today GOOGLE landed a right hook with the release of Google Apps Sync for Microsoft Outlook. At $4.16 per Employee/Account per month (Google Apps Premier Edition) the Google Apps service has finally delivered on making Outlook / Exchange a true commodity product. $50k per 1000 users and you can essentially outsource your Exchange servers and Admins to realize an instant ROI… Not bad. No Exchange server, No Exchange Admin(s), no backup.. No PROBLEM 
In the past cutting over from Outlook/Exchange to Google Apps was not a great option or career move for CIO’s out there. Personally I didn’t want to sign-up for the task of training a few thousand employees on a new Email Interface… Now however with the new Google Plug-in for Outlook it “appears” that an Outlook/Google Apps combo is a reality. Combine that with the Google Apps Connector for Blackberry Enterprise Server due out in July of 2009 and the LDAP Google Apps Directory SYNC (Sync Google Apps with Active Directory) and you just might have a full winner (that is unless your smart and ditched your RIM server for an ActiveSync device… HELLO!) or a POC at the very least.
The only downside to the announcement is the FREE Google Apps Service will not support the Google Outlook Sync Plug-in. Unfortunately only Google Apps Premier and Education edition are supported at this time…
Real quick, here’s a HIGH LEVEL breakdown of the Premier svc:
Google Apps Premier Edition Breakdown
- 25 GB Mailbox
- 99.9% Uptime SLA
- Postini Email Sanitation (No SPAM or Virus via AV)
- 24/7 Customer Support
- Conf. Room Scheduling, Exchange GAL Lookup, Private Video Sharing, Google Sites, Online Calendar/Email/Contacts (GMAIL Interface), Mobile SYNC
- NO EXCHANGE SERVER OR ADMIN! (Big ROI here)
All in all, VERY interesting. If your an IT manager running Outlook/Exchange you should defiantly take a look at this. My guess is Google is going to have a busy few months as ppl test this out and begin making the cut-over. I wonder how long it will take Apple’s Mac OS X Snow Leopard to support the Google Apps Messaging Platform…?
Tags: Apple, cloud sync, exchange, gal, gmail, Google, google-apps, Microsoft, mobile, outlook, plug-in, postini, Spam
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That’s about 60% less than what Microsoft would charge for hosted exchange ($10 per user per month).
http://www.microsoft.com/online/exchange-online.mspx
Plus, on the google side you get a 25Gig mailbox vs. the Microsoft 5gig mailbox and this doesn’t include all the add-on’s you get with the GOOGLE services (Sites, postini etc…).
Now granted, you could get the entire BPOS suite but that starts at $15 per user per month. All in all, thanks for the heads up!!!
[Reply]
seoguy Reply:
June 11th, 2009 at 4:56 PM
@shockersh, don’t forget those MDOP Microsoft prices are list. QTY more than 1 and you will get more of a discount. And I have a feeling now that the Exchange hosting biz is speeding up, you can expect the msft pricing to be more in line with the goog offering
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