The Official Brio's Blog

I’m confused by the value of the offerings for Google Apps from Google.  Premier and standard edition ??.

I’m thinking of moving my corporate / business e-mail to a hosted solution.So, I am exploring the options that are available for Google’s email solution.

Here is what I am looking for:

• First and foremost  is availability. I want it available always (100% availability) Since nowadays email runs businesses.
• Value! ! I don’t mind paying but I expect to get additional value for the paid service when comparing it to a free service. Support is very important
• IMAP and POP access to e-mail accounts.
• Emails, contacts and Calender should be in Sync. I don’t want to open my outlook to see meetings. Want to access them from my Blackberry directly.
• Clean and usable web interface to e-mail. This is going to be used by non-technical staff  (sales & marketing) , so ease of use is very important.
• Decent amount of storage space. Decent is defined by me to be 10 GB of storage.

Google Apps Standard  edition does not have support.  No SLA (Service Level Agreement)  for availability which mean no uptime Guarantee ….Sorry not for businesses. But on the other hand Google Apps Premier Edition offers powerful messaging and collaboration apps that meet business-critical needs:

• 99.9% uptime guarantee
• 25GB of email storage per employee
• Blackberry and Microsoft Outlook interoperability
• Mobile email, calendar and IM access
• Industry-leading security
• Full administrative and data control
• Helpful support choices
• $50 per user per year
• Proven cost savings

These above feature make it enterprise and business ready hosted email solution.

Compare Google Apps Standard v/s Google Apps Premier

Google Apps an integrated suite of Google applications that includes an email program, online calendar, instant messaging client with voice capabilities and a web-based word processor cum spreadsheet software and many more…

Business organizations, educational institutions and even individuals can use the Google Apps service . And since Google Apps require little or no technical expertise, it is a blessing for small business /SME’s in India who have little budget for IT.

To get started with Google Apps, you’ll need a web domain name. If you are planning to use an existing web domain with Google Apps, just make sure that you have access to your DNS settings, which is generally available with the domain host. Google Apps is available in two editions – the standard (free) edition and a premier (paid) edition. Standard edition one does not have any support from Google. Whereas premier edition has 24×7 email support and phone support for critical issues. So, standard edition is not for businesses / not recommended for businesses.

The premium edition offers 25 Gigs of storage per user means that in-box quotas and deletion schedules are a thing of the past with Google Apps. It provides Integrated instant messaging, Built-in voice and video chat, search felicity, Protection and security for sensitive information and Mobile integration for the companies top brass who use the Blackberry or the iPhone, free of cost.

For more details visit  Google Apps Reseller

FAQ : Google Apps FAQ