What is it?
Google Apps is a web-based suite of office applications. The
Premier Edition, which costs £25 per user per year, is being
aimed at enterprises currently using
Microsoft products.
Outsourcing supplier Capgemini's decision to offer desktop
support to customers running Google Apps shows that even large
service companies think there is money to be made from low-cost
software-as-a-service applications.
The version Capgemini will be supporting is the Premier Edition,
which comes with round the clock telephone support.
Google is also creating an infrastructure of companies offering
software to Google Apps users, trying to create in a hurry what
Microsoft has had more than a quarter of a century to build. There
will be work with these companies - and for individual developers
trying to fill niches.
Systems administrators may also need to get to grips with the
ins and outs of managing Google Apps, probably in addition to
Microsoft, since outside the low-budget worlds of education and
NGOs, few organisations are likely to burn their bridges with
Microsoft yet.
A report by analyst firm Burton Group - Google Apps in the
Enterprise: A Promotion-Enhancing or Career-Limiting Move for
Enterprise Architects? - points out that Google Apps does not
support many of the functions users have grown accustomed to,
programming tools are rudimentary compared with Visual Studio, the
99.9% uptime promise applies only to Gmail, and the user agreement
says that Google will not be liable for lost data if the service
fails.
Where did it originate?
Google began assembling Google Apps in 2006, building on the
positive response to Gmail. The Premier Edition was launched in
February this year, and e-mail migration was added this summer.
What's it for?
Google Apps comprises Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Talk, Docs
& Spreadsheets, and a Page Creator that requires no knowledge
of HTML. These are accessed through a customisable start page.
There is also a set of code extensibility APIs for integration with
other applications.
Administrators have a basic set of tools for tasks such as
managing lists of users and creating mailing lists. There are also
tools for migrating existing e-mail systems, such as Exchange, to
Gmail. Once migration is complete, the old e-mail server can be
abandoned, or run in parallel. APIs are supplied to enable account
synchronisation with the existing user directory and provide single
sign-on.
What makes it special?
The administrator's task is very much simplified, since the
hardware and software is managed by Google. If use of Google Apps
spreads, however, the system admin work lost will be replaced by
systems integration work, which is likely to be made more
interesting by Google's policy of keeping its applications in a
state of continuous beta.
How difficult is it to master?
Everyday use and management of Google Apps is likely to be much
simpler than managing Microsoft Office, not least because a web
interface cannot be cluttered in the same way as a desktop screen.
There is no feedback yet on how difficult it will be to integrate
Google Apps into existing infrastructures.
Where is it used?
Google's flagship user is Arizona State University in the US.
Capgemini potentially has a million desktop users, including the
Inland Revenue.
What systems does it run on?
Where Microsoft only supports Internet Explorer for Windows
Live, Google Apps offers support for Internet Explorer, Firefox,
Safari, Opera, Mozilla and Netscape.
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