Tuesday, September 22

Google Apps vs Microsoft Exchange


by Eric Pratt

Does your business run its email through Microsoft Exchange? Have you been considering moving the services to another service like Google Apps? I'm not an advocate for either but I do know from a user perspective the most important consideration is functionality.

As the decision maker you have a lot to consider from the features vs cost perspective, by now I'm sure you've done the due diligence. There are a lot of cost and feature differences to evaluate before purchasing and sometimes you get what you pay for. If you haven't compared features and costs here are a couple links to check before you make a change....

Google Apps

MS Exchange



I guess as a user I'm more interested what each does and more importantly what, if anything, Google Apps doesn't do what Exchange does. The largest concern is syncing with Outlook. With Exchange I know my calendar, contacts, tasks, and email all sync between my phone and laptop instantaneously (issues with Blackberry or I Phone aside). Google Apps does not include a snyc program for the calendar, tasks, contacts, and emails but you can buy an aftermarket Calendar Sync. Why isn't this standard? The Google application is cheaper but its not really apples to apples because of this so while as the business owner/decision maker you see cost savings benefits but your users aren't seeing the same or better features. If you're going to Google Apps you have some selling to do to your team, make sure you're educated on the pros and cons of each.

The one thing you know about Google from their recent explosion onto the IT scene is that they have a habit of creating great products, marketing them effectively, and improving on them dramatically. They are willing and able to put the proper resources into their offering, and we know they don't have cash flow issues. Google makes great products but the Apps has some challenges that you will undoubtedly need to address with your team in order to have their full buying. Heading the issues off before implementing any change is always good policy before enacting any change into your environment.

For more information on these and other services and help in deciding which might be best for you please contact QeH2.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.