Google Apps for the Enterprise

[ClakarEQ]

Anyone know about it? doing it? etc?

I'm working on some cost analysis on these products,
These costs are estimates, it could be a lot different depending on your selected agreements, etc (this is in USD)
Office 2007 + Outlook 2007 licenses = ~$360.00 (one time flat cost, you own it)
OpenOffice + Outlook 2007 licenses = ~120.00 (one time flat cost, you own it)
Google Apps = ~$50.00 per user per year

This is just "costs" not functionality for now.

But my post is more along the functionality part. There is serious talk on moving many services to Google. IMO this has all sorts of bad and costly issues. Curious on what other IT folks think on this.

[Tikker]

I am not a fan of giving google any more than they already have

open office sucks donkey balls compared to MS office

I'm not a huge fan of MS, but excel and word are MILES better than anything else

[Ganzo]

dont forget 2007 version of OneNote, i could not go a day at work without it

[brinstar]

what exactly does one note do? i have it but have never tried using it

[ClakarEQ]

I'm not a one-note user but afaik it is sort of like a whiteboard, where you can write, draw, "sticky" other docs of any flavor. It is what you could say the outlook "journal" became, but with a lot more features.

Tik, if openoffice is so shitty compared to ms office, do you have any experience with what "google apps" offers? I've not used it yet but will probably get in some testing over the next couple weeks. I've already heard of some downsides re: graphic embeding, and things of the OLE nature.

[Naethyn]

I use google docs. I love it. I can instantly publish documents online for certain members or everyone to see. Really great for schedules etc. The text editing isn't so great as tabs are horribad. The spreadsheet app owns also. It also has the collaboration features just like the rest. I've not used the payed service.

[Tikker]

I

Tik, if openoffice is so shitty compared to ms office, do you have any experience with what "google apps" offers? I've not used it yet but will probably get in some testing over the next couple weeks. I've already heard of some downsides re: graphic embeding, and things of the OLE nature.

I find it to be like MS office was about 10-12 years ago

it's no where near as polished, or feature rich

that being said, people are moving to it because it's free, and easy to share online

but in an actual enterprise environment it's pretty mickey mouse....

it'd be like handing out hotmail accounts rather than running your own mail server, if that makes sense

[ClakarEQ]

Believe or not, the largest division owned by our parent company is looking to do just that, outsource corp. e-mail to google. The size of that division is roughly 15k in people. They are looking at an 80/20 or 90/10 type rule that would suggest the majority would use google apps, gmail, etc while the other percent uses ms office, outlook, exchange, etc.

[Gidan]

Outsourcing email is starting to become very popular for some reason. In general though, its far better to run your own mail servers. Corporate email should NEVER be handled by an outside provider.

[Tikker]

Outsourcing email is starting to become very popular for some reason. In general though, its far better to run your own mail servers. Corporate email should NEVER be handled by an outside provider.

yup, our company is looking at it to for some reason

despite the fact that we can do it ourselves, for half the cost of what outsourcing would cost

it's fucking retarded

[Tossica]

Our executive director has been sending me links that she is getting from other non-profits that are moving in that direction. Fuck that.

[Lyion]

Anyone know about it? doing it? etc?

I'm working on some cost analysis on these products,
These costs are estimates, it could be a lot different depending on your selected agreements, etc (this is in USD)
Office 2007 + Outlook 2007 licenses = ~$360.00 (one time flat cost, you own it)
OpenOffice + Outlook 2007 licenses = ~120.00 (one time flat cost, you own it)
Google Apps = ~$50.00 per user per year

This is just "costs" not functionality for now.

But my post is more along the functionality part. There is serious talk on moving many services to Google. IMO this has all sorts of bad and costly issues. Curious on what other IT folks think on this.

Mail generally includes a companies most critical and private documents. File servers have even more secret stuff. Maybe I'm missing something, but do Google Apps use the public google servers? Even if they don't, outsourcing control of one's documents and mail is a very bad and dodgy endeavor.

[Tossica]

the fact that Google serves me ads related to content IN MY FUCKING EMAIL messages makes me a little worried about turning over control of my corporate docs to them.

[Gidan]

The simple fact is this. Anything that is on a Google server can be accessed by Google. By storing any company information on their servers, you are making it open to them regardless of whether the server itself is publicly accessible on the internet. This goes for any Google doc or any email using their mail servers. At it is, Google already logs data about who is searching for what, we don't need to give the private cooperate information on top of that.

[Lyion]

the fact that Google serves me ads related to content IN MY FUCKING EMAIL messages makes me a little worried about turning over control of my corporate docs to them.

There are no ad's on their google apps for the enterprise. You pay a fee to have it be secure and ad free.

Gidan's point remains that it still allows Google access.

Personally, I think if it was a small company, it'd be a worthwhile deal. It's no different than hosting your mail and web servers at some small ISP, except Google is much more secure.

[Tossica]

the fact that Google serves me ads related to content IN MY FUCKING EMAIL messages makes me a little worried about turning over control of my corporate docs to them.

There are no ad's on their google apps for the enterprise. You pay a fee to have it be secure and ad free.

I understand that. My point is that they use the content of my email for their advertising purposes. That makes me nervous.