Google Tuesday unveiled synchronization technology that supports Microsoft Outlook as the front end to Gmail, giving users an option to scrap Exchange on the back end while allowing users to keep their familiar desktop client.
Google Apps Sync for Microsoft Outlook provides synchronization for e-mail, calendar and contacts between Gmail and Outlook/Exchange. It is only available to users of Google Apps Premier, the company's $50 per user corporate offering, and those using the Education (Edu) version.
As part of its offering, Google has developed a protocol called GDATA that is similar to its Gears technology to aid in the sync of Outlook and the Google back end. Gears supports offline use of applications.
"This is a case of Google leading with the strongest part of Google Apps and doing the right thing, which is saying we can save you money on the back end without disrupting your end-user environments," says Guy Creese, an analyst with the Burton Group. Creese says users should be able to save on two Microsoft licenses, one for Exchange itself and the other being the client access license to the server. "For some, Outlook is ingrained into the way they work, and if you take away Outlook, you are taking away their security blanket."
Google's offer to let users keep their familiar Outlook client while swapping out the back end is similar to moves made by other Exchange alternatives, such as Gordano and PostPath, which was bought by Cisco last year.
Google offers a number of synchronization tools that work between Outlook and Google Apps, but the new tool wraps everything into a single 5MB plug-in that can be deployed via Microsoft's System Center Configuration Manager.
In addition, the synchronization is built into Outlook and is not an additional application outside the client.
The plug-in supports Windows XP SP3, Vista, and Outlook 2007, and is currently only available in English.
Google says GDATA provides for faster synchronization between the two platforms in comparison to IMAP, which had been the only sync technology available between the two. IMAP's slow performance has been a hindrance for those wanting to use Outlook against a Gmail back end.
"We saw Outlook performance as a major hurdle to rolling out Google mail across our enterprise," says Chris O'Connor, IT director at Genentec. He now has 1,000 users on Outlook out of 15,000 total. He says IMAP was the cause of the performance hurdle. "We have been using the new tool in our sandbox and have come to the conclusion that it looks like a native Outlook experience and the average user does not know what is on the back end. We expect quick adoption when we release this to our enterprise users."
The Google synchronization technology also adds a number of other features, including access to the global access list and the ability to look up another user's free and busy time. And a migration tool lets users move their Exchange .PST file into Gmail, a process the company says takes two clicks.
"People need speed and for it to be the same, it has to look and feel like Outlook," says Chris Vander Mey, senior product manager at Google.
Article by John Fontana, Network World
Microsoft announced on Friday a new service for Windows Mobile users called My Phone where you can synchronize all your email, calendar and contact items with a password protected Web site. With this service, data are not saved only at the phone but also at a web site. The service is for free, and will be offered up to 200 Mb storage at the site.
Three days later Google announced a beta service for mobile users that is based on Microsoft's ActiveSyn tecnology. The service will support iPhone, Windows Mobile and SyncML (like Nokia and Sony Ericsson) devices. The service will give the ability for Gmail users to synchronize mail, contacts and google calendar items.
The biggest
Instead, they are treating the financial crisis, which has left companies in many other industries starved of resources as the credit markets dry up, as vindication for a highly conservative financial stance that brought criticism in better times.
It’s not burning a hole in our pocket, it’s fine for it to just sit there,” said Eric Schmidt, chief executive of Google, which has amassed $16bn of cash.
“You’ll continue to see us long on cash,” said Steve Ballmer, chief executive of Microsoft, which has nearly $21bn. “In this environment, most people would tell you cash is king. Most people tend to guard cash pretty tightly, value having cash, because you never know when you might need some.”
The tech industry’s strong cash position has set it apart and left the biggest players with considerable financial flexibility. While companies including Microsoft and Cisco Systems have held large amounts of cash since before the tech bust early this decade, others such as Apple and Google have used the success of recent years to join the new super-rich elite.
Yet the experience of previous downturns and fear that they could need deep reserves to draw on in fast-moving technology markets has made them cautious to spend. Many in
Intel now has a rule-of-thumb approach of keeping enough cash on hand to fund one year of research and development and the capital needed to develop the next generation of chip technology, said Robert Burgelman, a professor at Stanford business school.
“Intel is in this relentless drive to make these massive investments that probably only Samsung can compete with,” he said. “The Japanese and the Europeans, they all blinked.”
Yet the cash cushions of other tech companies in less capital-intensive parts of the business now far exceed such requirements. Despite spending only about $2bn a year on R&D and capital investment, Apple’s $26bn in cash has left it with the biggest cash pile in the tech world – a big contrast to the last downturn, which it started with less than $4bn. The cash now accounts for about a third of its market value.
Since the last tech bust, many other tech companies have responded to pressure from shareholders to partially reduce cash balances by buying back shares and making smaller acquisitions.
Yet keeping a big cushion on hand also leaves the company with “a range of options” for the future, such as making acquisitions and investing its business, and also sends a strong message to customers about a company’s staying power, said Frank Calderoni, chief financial officer of Cisco, which has net cash of $20bn.
While saying the cash will help them get more value from their acquisitions, however, most tech executives say they are likely to continue to mount only relatively small deals and that even these may be few and far between.
“It is ultimately a strategic weapon,” said Mr Schmidt.
This article can be found at:
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/e729ed70-eb16-11dd-bb6e-0000779fd2ac,_i_email=y.html
By Richard Waters in
Source: The Financial Times Limited 2009
