Google has developed a way to help companies move onto Google Apps--and away from Microsoft's Exchange e-mail software--without forcing a migration to the Gmail user interface.
Google's Dave Girouard discusses how Google is making a play for more and more business customers for Google Apps.
(Credit: Tom Krazit/CNET News)Microsoft's Outlook has been the dominant e-mail client within the business world for years, and Google's new Apps Sync for Outlook plug-in acknowledges that some business workers just aren't ready to give up that familiar interface, even if their CIOs are anxious to get everybody onto Google's version of the cloud. Businesses who have already signed up for Google Apps Premier Edition--as well as Education Edition customers--will be able to roll out this plug-in across their networks and allow Outlook messages, contacts, and calendar appointments to sync with Google Apps.
Google is trying to expand its presence inside the world's corporate IT departments with products like Google Apps, which the company says offers a cheaper and more reliable alternative to traditional IT software companies. Quoting data from Forrester, Google's David Girouard, president of Enterprise products, said companies who chose to use Google's hosted Gmail service save about $17 per user per month as compared to companies that build and host their own e-mail servers.
However, there apparently is a sizable enough number of workers that refuse to move off Outlook, meaning that IT directors who want to sign up with Google were forced to maintain a Microsoft Exchange server to placate those folks while moving everybody else to Gmail. An alternative where Outlook users are connected to Gmail through IMAP got the job done, but at the expense of a severe performance hit, said Chris Vander Mey, a senior product manager with Google.
Now, they can let those people continue to use Outlook but allow IT managers to move completely away from Exchange servers. "We've made it pretty easy to exchange your Exchange server for Google," Girouard said.
Google's eye is squarely on Microsoft's cozy position in the enterprise when it comes to products such as Google Apps. Around 1.75 million businesses are using Google Apps, Girouard said, although he declined to clarify how many of those businesses are Premier Edition customers.
CIOs invited by Google to a press event in San Francisco were naturally bullish on Google's version of cloud computing, and downplayed any concerns about security, reliability or the loss of a competitive advantage when it comes to giving up control of their IT.
"At most businesses, IT is not core. I'm not in the IT business to make money, I'm here to enable (my company) to win," said Bob Rudy, vice president and CIO for semiconductor designer Avago Technologies in San Jose.
The plug-in only works for Outlook users on Windows; Mac users on Entourage will have to wait.
Googlers who want to revalue their underwater stock options will have to wait until Tuesday for the voluntary employee option exchange program to launch, Google said in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday that did not explain why.
The program--which allows allow employees to exchange all or some of their existing stock options for the same number of new options--was scheduled to launch Thursday and end on March 3. Employees were notified of the change in an e-mail sent Wednesday by Laszlo Bock, vice president of People Operations at Google, and which was included in the filing.
"We will send you an e-mail no later than next Tuesday to confirm the new program time line," the e-mail said. "We will be sharing a comprehensive FAQ with you on the date of launch. We understand this delay will raise questions. For regulatory reasons, it is simply not possible to answer all of your questions before the launch, but please know we remain committed to offering this program."
Google announced the one-for-one stock option exchange program last week when it posted its fourth quarter results, which included a decline in earnings from a year ago that were impacted by stock option expenses.
The program is intended to create more incentives for employees to remain at the company. Given that Google stock rose to greater than $700 a share in late 2007 and now trades around $340 a share, many employees would otherwise find themselves holding worthless options.
Google said last week that the new options were expected to have an exercise price equal to the closing per-share price on March 2 and that stock options with exercise prices above that would be eligible for exchange. The company also said it expected to take a stock-based compensation charge of $460 million in the first quarter as a result of the program.
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Microsoft announced Thursday it expanded its Exchange ActiveSync IP licensing program and posted technical documents to spur development of prototype applications that link to its Exchange Server and Exchange ActiveSync-enabled mobile phones.
The Exchange ActiveSync software is designed to allow mobile phones to receive wireless push e-mail, as well as synchronize calendar, contacts and tasks. It also aims to allow companies to manage wireless devices and enact security policies.
The software giant also posted the protocols on the Microsoft Developer Network and expanded the licensing program to establish greater clarity on the steps and licensing terms that are needed when other companies want to commercialize the ActiveSync applications.
Yahoo's Zimbra software now can work hand-in-hand with other server software for e-mail, calendar, and contacts, including Microsoft's widely used Exchange.
Zimbra Collaboration Suite, an open-source software package, now has an "open extension framework," and the first extension works with Exchange 2003, Yahoo said Tuesday. The company is leaving it to others to develop extensions for other software, such as IBM's Lotus or Novell's GroupWise.
Integration with Microsoft's dominant Exchange is a major requirement for many companies. Yahoo got it working by using existing Microsoft Exchange APIs (application programming interfaces), said John Robb, Zimbra's vice president of product marketing. "We are using WebDAV, standard Exchange settings, and a Zimbra module that runs alongside the Exchange server," he said in a statement.
The University of Pennsylvania is one organization using Zimbra's Exchange connection software, according to Sumatra Development, a company that specializes in e-mail migration.
Quest Software announced Friday it acquired NetPro Computing in a $78.7 million cash transaction.
With the acquisition, Quest Software aims to enlarge its offerings in such products designed to integrate and manage Microsoft Active Directory, Exchange, SharePoint, and SQL Server.
Quest will continue to develop, market, and support NetPro products while it develops an integration plan and road map. The combined company expects to unveil a new technology roadmap around October 15.
Back in 1998, NetPro attracted the attention of Novell, which invested $1 million in the company.
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The London Stock Exchange is back to normal after a software glitch on Monday halted trading for the longest period in eight years.
"It was software-related, a coincidence, due to two processes we couldn't have foreseen," an exchange representative told Reuters on Tuesday.
The outage began about 45 minutes after trading opened on Monday and lasted more than seven hours--effectively wiping a full day's trading from the books.
A representative told Silicon.com that the exchange, which switched to its digital trading platform TradElect in June 2007, has been running normally since the fix was put in place.
The outage comes in an important month for the exchange. The platform was expected to begin to offer trades in Italian equities this month, made possible through the acquisition of Borse Italia in 2007.
This month was also the deadline for TradElect to reach 10,000 continuous messages per second.
Julian Goldsmith of Silicon.com reported from London.
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