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7 Keys to Comparing Google Apps For Business with Microsoft Exchange Server 2003/2007
Introduction
Google Apps For Business is Google's Software as a Service (SaaS) solution for business messaging, collaboration, and security. It includes Gmail, with integrated voice and video chat, Google Calendar, Google Docs, Google Sites, and Google Video. Google Apps is a reliable, cost-effective solution for keeping employees connected and improving their productivity.
Microsoft Exchange Server is Microsoft's on-premise solution for enterprise messaging. It includes support for email, calendar, contacts, and tasks. It requires client software, typically Microsoft Outlook, to connect to these services. Microsoft Exchange is a mature product with a large installed base across businesses of all sizes. The current version is 2007, but the previous version - 2003 is still in use.
The 7 key differentiators when we compare Google Apps For Business and Microsoft Exchange Server 2003/2007 are: (1) initial investment, (2) maintenance, (3) uptime, (4) collaboration, (5) security, (6) mobile access, and (7) total cost of ownership.
Initial Investment and Scaling
Microsoft Exchange Server is Microsoft's on-premise solution for enterprise messaging. It includes support for email, calendar, contacts, and tasks. It requires client software, typically Microsoft Outlook, to connect to these services. Microsoft Exchange is a mature product with a large installed base across businesses of all sizes. The current version is 2007, but the previous version - 2003 is still in use.
Google AppsFor Business
- Google Apps uses a SaaS model - users can access all applications through a web browser. The online list price is just $50 per user per year.
- Google manages the infrastructure for delivering applications and all user information is stored in Google's data centres.
- You don't need to purchase or configure new hardware to use Google Apps.
- You pay only an annual per user licensing fee so business can easily add new users as their organization grows or remove users when downsizing.
- Google manages user data so you don't need to invest in complex backup systems or add storage capacity as email volume increases.
Microsoft Exchange Server 2003-07
- Before even starting with Exchange server, customers need to make an upfront investment of atleast several thousand dollars in hardware and software. Pricing is complex and depends on the volume of licenses and bundle of products.
- First, customers must purchase one or more on-premise servers to run the software
- Next, customers need to buy and install Windows Server on each server (list price of $700 for Standard Edition and $4,000 for Enterprise Edition) and Exchange CAL's for each user (list price of $67/user for Standard and $92/user for Enterprise).
- Finally, customers need to purchase and configure client software like Microsoft Office for each user to connect to the Exchange Server.
- As their users grow, customers need to invest in additional servers, backup systems, other hardware and software. If their number of users ever shrinks, customer can be left with unused equipment.
Maintenance and Upgrades
Google Apps For Business
- Google Apps customers pay a flat licensing fee per user per year-there are no additional maintenance fees
- New features are continually being added to Google Apps and users can benefit from them as soon as they are available without updating or re-configuring software.
- In 2008, Google added 68new features including new application(Google Sites and Google Video) without additional charges.
Microsoft Exchange Server 2003-07
- Customers must make upgrades to on-premise servers to benefit from bug fixes and new features, which requires downtime and IT resources.
- Customers may also need to upgrade client software on user machines to maintain compatibility, which decreases worker productivity and adds cost.
- A 1,000 person company can expect to spend on an average $26/user per year on infrastructure maintenance!
Uptime
Google Apps For Business
- Google provides a 99.9% uptime service level agreement(SLA) for Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Docs, Google Sites and Google Talk services
- User data is stored securely in multiple, geographically dispersed data centres. So even if a server crashes or an entire data centre goes offline, users can still access their email and other data.
Microsoft Exchange Server 2003-07
- Customers are responsible for keeping their Exchange Server running so downtime depends on their ability to resolve issues.
- Data backup and disaster recovery solutions require additional hardware purchases and additional IT resources to setup and maintain.
- Exchange customers experience an average of 1.5hours per month of planned downtime and an additional hour of unplanned downtime(compared to no scheduled downtime and average unscheduled downtime of only 10-15 minutes per month for Google Apps users).
(Ref : googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/10/what-we-learned-from-1-million.html)
Productivity and Collaboration
Google Apps For Business
- In addition to Gmail and Google Calendar, Google Apps For Business includes Google Docs, Google Sites and Google Video
- Google docs lets users view and collaborate on documents, spreadsheets and presentations in the browser-without the hassle of attachments or version tracking.
- Google Sites lets users build websites for sharing knowledge, managing projects and other things without needing any programming skills
- Google Video gives business secure and private video sharing over the web-without the need to share files or complex infrastructure
Microsoft Exchange Server 2003-07
- Microsoft Exchange Server does not include productivity and collaboration applications. Customers must purchase additional software like Microsoft Office, which lacks the collaboration features in Google Apps.
- To get instant messaging, presence and unified communication with voice, customers need to license and run Microsoft Office Communications Server(these features are already included in Gmail)
Information Security
Google Apps For Business
- Google operates one of the largest networks of distributed data centers in the world and goes to great lengths to protect the data and intellectual property on these servers.
- Google's facilities are protected around the clock by a dedicated security operations team.
- Each Google application is built from the ground up security in mind and external security audits are regularly conducted to provide additional assurance.
- Google Apps data is fractured and obfuscated across multiple servers and disks, making it human unreadable. The controls, processes and policies that project the data have successfully completed a SAS 70 Type II audit.
- Google relies on Google Apps for all its corporate email, meetings and confidential information like product design specs. Google trusts its data to the same products available to its customers.
Microsoft Exchange Server 2003-07
- Each customer is responsible for maintaining their own security-although every organization takes security extremely seriously, it's unlikely that each company will have resources to invest as heavily in security as Google has, since Google can pool its resources across many customers.
- Administrators must frequently install new security patches to keep servers up-to-date and server mis-configuration or lack of hardening can create vulnerabilities.
- Data stored on local machines so users often need to send files in an email or put them on a USB key or CD to work on a home computer. This exposes the company to leaks beyond the administrator's control. With Google Apps, All data is available anywhere through a browser so this problem goes away.
Information Security
Google Apps For Business
- Google Apps supports mobile access for email, calendar and other data.
- Google provides a free application for accessing email on most Java-enabled phones and smart phones and Gmail's support for IMAP also allows integration with native mail clients on many phones. Partner solutions are available for full push access to email
- Google Sync (Beta) for Mobile keeps the calendar and contacts on a user's phone and on the web synchronized(available for free on the iPhone, Blackberry phones, Android phones and other devices)
- Web interfaces optimized for mobile browsers are also available for Gmail, Google Calendar and Google Docs.
Microsoft Exchange Server 2003-07
- Microsoft Exchange Server supports push based mobile access for email, calendar, contacts and other data on Exchange ActiveSync - enabled devices. Support for Exchange ActiveSync is built into Windows Mobile-based devices and phones from manufacturers including Apple, Palm and Nokia.
- The exchange ActiveSync protocol also lets administrators enforce security policies and commands over the air including remote wipe if a device is lost or stolen
- Integration with Blackberry Enterprise Server(BES) allows push based access to user data through the native interface on Blackberry devices, but this always requires purchasing and running a BES. With Google Apps, customers don't need to do this to get email on Blackberry devices, which reduces costs.
- Web interfaces optimized for mobile browsers are also available for Gmail, Google Calendar and Google Docs.
Total Cost of Ownership
With no upfront hardware investments and no infrastructure maintenance costs, companies of all sizes can save money by switching to Google Apps For Business from Microsoft Exchange Server.
This Chart shows estimated savings over three years from using Google Apps instead of Microsoft Exchange Server 2007:
Savings estimates are based on sample customers and may not reflect your actual experience with Google Apps or Microsoft Exchange 2007. See the Goolge Apps savings calculator to learn more and produce your own savings estimates:
