Google Apps are a great choice for small-medium Mac shops
- TAGS:calendar, email, Google Apps, IMAP
- IT TOPICS:Emerging Technology, Enterprise Apps, Macintosh, Storage
As a Macintosh business consultant, I've built up IT infrastructure for dozens of companies over the past few years. Most of these companies have been under 200 desktops and at least half Macintosh. I've just completed my first medium sized business move to Google Apps, and I have to say I am extremely pleased.
In fact, I find myself in a position to recommend the switch to anyone out there in a similar situation.
This particular company has four offices: New York, London, Madrid and Mumbai and under 100 employees globally. They are about 75% Mac and have been on a number of different messaging systems, internal and external. About a year ago they moved to a Spanish ISP which offered POP and Web-based mail for around the same $50/user/year model that Google Apps charges. They only used local contacts and calendars in Entourage and Outlook.
Normally, I would recommend putting in an Microsoft Exchange, Leopard Server or Leopard-based Kerio environment, however the leadership of this organization is very forward thinking and open to new ideas. I have put some small organizations on Google Apps in the past but since this company was always moving and valued mobility, they seemed like a good candidate for migration.
The leadership said they were on board. The planning took about a week. The approval and testing another and the migration a third. By the end of the 3rd week, all four offices are on Google. They are all using their 25Gb IMAP mail accounts and their brand new Google Start Page which links to all of their important web apps. Most users have picked up on Google Talk (Jabber) which is built into the web client. They also lerned the new calendaring pretty quickly. We are setting up a few "Sites" and "Docs" repositories as well.
For safety and accountability, all of the emails are sent through a Postini backend - which is built into the paid Google Apps account. From here I can restore email and we are covered in case of an audit because it keeps a copy of all incoming and outgoing email.
All smooth sailing so far. *Knocks on wood*
If you are in a similar situation give Google Apps a look. In my experience, it is everything it's cracked up to be.
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