Google Apps and Cloud Services

Disclaimer: Google changes their plans and quotas on a regular basis. The information below should only be considered as rough guide and may become obsolete. Please double check with Google support for the latest information.

Overview of Google Apps...

Google Sync Overview...

Gmail VS Google Apps

Google Apps gives you 24hr / 7day phone support.

For Google Apps Business, Video is limited to users in your domain. Business users also get more GMail space (25GB) and have better tools to Sync Calendars and Contacts with Outlook. Phone support has UK or US phone numbers.

For a full feature comparison, visit http://support.google.com/a/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=175121

Google Apps Free

Google Apps Free will allow 10 users.

The main thing is that they don't give you "Google Apps Sync for Outlook" - so sharing calendars and contacts in Outlook is difficult.

We would recommend using Thunderbird instead of Outlook which can properly sync with Google accounts over the internet. (Read more here)

Outlook and Thunderbird will need to use the IMAP service.

Syncing options for Google Apps Free: http://www.google.com/sync/index.html

MSOutlook calendar Sync - (but at this time it is not suitable for 64-bit Windows): http://support.google.com/calendar/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=89955

For migrating data from Outlook to Google Apps - use the migration tool http://tools.google.com/dlpage/outlookmigration

Pros:

There are lots of pro's for Google Apps - visit the Google marketing machine for that info. Some are:

  • Possible to share Calendars between co-workers with Thunderbird
  • Good web interface
  • Native Android Support
  • Free for 10 users
  • 10GB of Gmail
  • 5GB of Google Drive

Cons:

  • nobody to contact urgently for service issues.
  • difficult to share Calendars or Contacts with Outlook
  • difficult to share Contacts with Thunderbird
  • Products are in Beta release (March 2012)

Google Apps Business

Google Apps Business costs $5/user/month and comes with the following features:

  • 24/7 Phone support and 99.9% uptime guarantee
  • 25GB Drive storage per user, no ads
  • 25GB GMail storage per user, no ads
  • Blackberry and Microsoft Outlook interoperability ("Google Apps Sync for Outlook" )
  • Virus and spam protection by Postini
  • Full administrative and data control

Google Apps Business accounts comes with Google Sync which is used to Sync mobile devices- see

Setup

Visit our Google Apps Email Settup page for instruction on email setups.

Pros:

There are lots of pro's for Google Apps - visit the (overworked) Google marketing machine for that info. Some are:

  • Easy to share Calendars between co-workers

  • Easy to share Contacts between co-workers

  • Can share resources with co-workers (book rooms, etc).

  • Cheap - Cost was $60/year per mailbox

  • iPhone and iPad support. Set it up as a MS exchange server with the domain m.google.com - see http://support.google.com/bin/answer.py?hl=en&;;answer=1086559#1091651
  • Native Android Support
  • Email forwards are free (Google calls them Groups)

Cons:

  • No refund on canceling your Business account.
  • These products are in Beta release (March 2012). Drive was released April 2012.
  • Limited super admin privelges to set file permissions (unlike a windows or unix file system).
  • Email support is slow to respond and Phone support staff are inexperienced (usual large call center syndrome).

Extra Google App Storage:

Google Calendars with Outlook 2007

Internet Shared iCal GMail Calandars are seen as read only with Outlook 2007 - so you cannot edit your Google Calendar in Outlook.

Outlook 2007 does not provide support for CalDev either.

Google Sync does not work with Outlook 2007 without a Google Apps account.

Google has a program called "Google Calendar Sync", however it is not compatible with Windows XP 64-bit Edition at this time (Feb 2012). http://support.google.com/calendar/bin/answer.py?hl=en&;answer=98565

 

IMAP Notes:

Thunderbird and Outlook can use IMAP - which syncs emails over various devices.

IMAP only syncs emails. Calendar and Contacts are not synced.

To setup IMAP with outlook and apple - see http://support.google.com/mail/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=75726

(Thunderbird does it automatically!)

 

Google Account to Google Apps Migration

See our Google Migration page

http://support.google.com/accounts/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=188007