Your Opinion on Gmail/GoogleApps for Small Business

a great answer. if anyone has anything else to add please do. otherwise i'll give points to shaunak and close out. thanks!

shaunak i do have a quick question if you have the time-- the sites you suggested look great; however what I (and many others) are looking for is a hosted alternative to Exchange Server. Meaning that users can sync calendars and contacts as well as emails across phones, laptops and desktops. you mentioned google doesn't do this however i think recently they launched sync options. it's not clear on these sites how they handle shared contacts/calendars at all. having this functionality would be well worth the hosting fee...

Hey Goldylamont, thanks for ignite the spark in mind. Let me check whether there is an MS Exchange alternative which as a sync facility. Thanks

for sure; the only one i know of is Communigate Pro server. but i don't know of any turnkey hosting providers. it seems like everyone is looking for a hosted exchange alternative...

Mannnnn!!!! We have to get you up too speed. You knowledge is outdated. Google has shared contacts in Google Apps Premium Edition. Yes, they push to BB, Droid, iPhone. I have a Droid and iPhone so yes it works. Here is a screenshot of my test corporate account. (Not our corporate account). That responder obviously never implements Google Apps for Enterprises. Maybe a Mom and Pop shop or two, but you can 100% disable advertising in Google Apps. Google does not "sniff" your data. It is called a crawler and it crawls public "websites/blogs/SN stuff", etc. It is not going to crawl your internal corporate data? Are you kidding? This guy needs to get a clue and read and do some implementations first. As far as auditing goes. Google Apps Premium Edition is SOX capable and enabled. That is what the reporting features in Premium are for. Once again...a non-Enterprise user. "Fast and secure email service"...what is this guy a hosting tech????!!! The SSO security authentication in Google is anything above average.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sU6scRn_L-I

READ! We had spam and anti-virus filters GALORE! Symantec, BigIP, etc. We spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on solutions. Postini is king. It KILLED out spam problems. And trust me, we had the enterprise LOCKED DOWN! Now with GoogleApps and PostIni. I NEVER get called anymore.

People say what they know and according to their experience. As a corporate user. Exchange cannot compete with Google Apps. The cost is amazingly low and when you are talking about a lack of need for SAN's, servers, etc. You cannot beat it. People's entire lives are 80-90% of the day through email. How much productivity is lost when the "Exchange is down" or "Exchange Maintenance Day" happens?

Listen, 45 users is nothing. We have ONE department with this many people. Trust me...save yourself some headache, waisted money and downtime. Upgrade to GoogleApps. I cannot tell you how much time I got back into my personal life working as an IT Manager and Sr. Systems Engineer.

goldylamont don't accept a "solution" so quickly! There are people out here with more experience. Give us a chance to answer your question. Next time say CORPORATE/ENTERPRISE/BUSINESS GOOGLEAPPS PREMIER EDITION experience so you don't get the naysayers that have no enterprise experience in implementations.

wow AbdAlmumin thank you for the commentary this is very helpful and sorry i closed the question so quickly. it seems like a lot has developed and changed over the past 12-18 months with GApps. i will definitely revisit and hopefully they include all the functionality for smaller companies as well as enterprises. thanks!

goldylamont no worries. Right Technology for the solution. Not just someone trying to tell you that this is what you need because it is profitable to them. Remember that! =)

Go to Google read for yourself. http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/business/index.html
http://www.youtube.com/user/GoogleApps
http://deployment.googleapps.com/ 
 

The question was for SME / SMB.

To AbdAlmumin:
Nothing is personal here and there is no question of profitability.


Google for "law suits against google" and you will get the answer.

Googles' security is best is class and there anti-spam tools are above all. But the SME / SMB should be able to afford it.

To Author: Wait for the others to comment before accepting the answer as you get multiple  good and strange reviews also to know and learn

shaunak $50/year per year is not affordable???? You can't be serious...I must of hit a nerve. You shouldn't take it personal.

goldylamont This is a perfect example of adherence to one technology and absolute adament refusal to look at another technology that will fit the budget of the company and accomplish the ROI objectives of an organization. It is not about Exchange vs. Google Apps. It is about risk vs. reward. Costs vs. sustainability. So from a SMB/SME perspective with costs fluctuations, risk and ROI models. Google Apps is a clear winner. That is exactly why the City of Los Angeles choose Google Apps over Exchange. The city of Washington DC has moved to Google Apps and the City of Orlando, and a bunch of other large scale corporations have made the move. Not to speak of the 44% of US Tier I/II University's that have made the move.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2009/10/city-council-votes-to-adopt-google-email-system-for-30000-city-employees.html

This is a great question and great answer by AbdAlmumin. I just signed up for GoogleApps and redirected my Host's MX to GoogleApps. However, is there a way to create another email account using my domain and just forward on the emails from that account to my email address that is being run by GoogleApps? Basically, I have a sales account that I never used but to get notifcations about payments or potential buys asking questions. Due to the very little use I do with the account I would rather just forward the emails on then pay an additional $50 dollars.