Welcome!

Java Authors: Ezhil Arasan Babaraj, Maureen O'Gara, Bruce Armstrong, Liz McMillan, Walter H. Pinson, III

Related Topics: Open Web, Search

Open Web: Article

Google Launches Guerilla Attack on Exchange

It’s going after Exchange with a new Apps Sync for Outlook plug-in
By Maureen O'Gara
Article Rating:
June 11, 2009 12:45 PM EDT
Reads:
 1,018

Rather than try to get the throngs of immovable Outlook and Office users to switch to Gmail and Google Apps, it's going after Exchange with a new Apps Sync for Outlook plug-in that lets Outlook messages, contacts and calendar appointments sync with the $50-a-seat Premier Edition of Google Apps, the stuff businesses buy. Like Outlook syncs with Exchange.

That means IT can switch out the Exchange back end and move to Google servers without its users being any the wiser.

As Google's web site proclaims, it removes "another key barrier to enterprise adoption of Google Apps."

Users will be able to get their messages in both Outlook and Gmail and use Outlook rather than a browser to access Apps, a device aimed at wearing down their resistance.

At a press conference Tuesday in San Francisco David Girouard, the president of Google enterprise products, quoted Forrester Research as calculating that Google's hosted Gmail service is $11.85 a head cheaper a month for companies than Exchange.

Girouard claimed the Apps business is profitable and doing "hundreds of millions of dollars" with around 1.75 million companies using the widgetry. However, it's unclear whether they're all paying for it. There are reportedly 15 million users.

The plug-in, said to be a year in the making, only works on Windows.

Besides being part of the fee-based Apps service, the widgetry will be free to education and non-profits.

Published June 11, 2009 – Reads 1,018
Copyright © 2009 SYS-CON Media, Inc. — All Rights Reserved.
Syndicated stories and blog feeds, all rights reserved by the author.

More Stories By Maureen O'Gara

Maureen O'Gara the most read technology reporter for the past 20 years, is the Cloud Computing and Virtualization News Desk editor of SYS-CON Media. She is the publisher of famous "Billygrams" and the editor-in-chief of "Client/Server News" for more than a decade. One of the most respected technology reporters in the business, Maureen can be reached by email at maureen(at)sys-con.com or paperboy(at)g2news.com, and by phone at 516 759-7025.

Comments (0)

Share your thoughts on this story.

Add your comment
You must be signed in to add a comment. Sign-in | Register

In accordance with our Comment Policy, we encourage comments that are on topic, relevant and to-the-point. We will remove comments that include profanity, personal attacks, racial slurs, threats of violence, or other inappropriate material that violates our Terms and Conditions, and will block users who make repeated violations. We ask all readers to expect diversity of opinion and to treat one another with dignity and respect.