We switched to Google 2 years ago - it was simply easier and better - oh and less expensive. It just works.
Robert Baker
16 Nov 2011 6:16 PM
Tony Tai
16 Nov 2011 7:11 PM
@Ian Ray: Google Apps for business users may disable/enable ads (http://bit.ly/9saThS) while Gmail continues to be scanned. According to Google: “If you have a Google Apps for Business or Education account, you have the option to disable/hide advertisements for users in your account.”… “To learn more about advertisements in Gmail, please visit the Gmail Help Center.” (http://bit.ly/bMm5uP)
Ian Ray
16 Nov 2011 8:17 PM
@Tony Tai
"Note that there is no ad-related scanning or processing in Google Apps for Education or Business with ads disabled"
It is true that there are advertisements if they are explicitly left on in domain settings, but not that Gmail continues to be scanned with them off.
I've used consumer gmail for years and hardly notice that these ads exist. If advertising is really a marketing pitch for Microsoft, why are the ads in Hotmail so intrusive?
16 Nov 2011 8:48 PM
@Ian Ray: As many people know, Hotmail is free, not a service offered to customers. I see from your link that Google users have the onus to learn how to turn off ads whereas Microsoft online services customers have no such concerns.
Ian Ray
16 Nov 2011 8:55 PM
@Tony Tai
Yes, Google Apps administrators have to learn how to use their own domain settings page.
16 Nov 2011 9:51 PM
@Daniel, @Robert Baker: Thank you for the opportunity to bring you up to date on how our solutions work for our customers. In terms of both availability and innovation in Microsoft’s web-based applications, the C-suite values our unique capabilities. In fact, since Chris Pyle, President and CEO of Champion Solution Group was quoted here in July of 2010 (http://bit.ly/rNdsrq ), Microsoft launched Office 365 in June of 2011 (http://bit.ly/s2pvfg).
“What concerned us most about Google was what we called their ‘roach motel’ approach to the cloud—once you go in, there’s no way out, if we installed Google Apps and trained everybody in how to use it, and then for some reason cloud computing wasn’t right for our business, we’d have nowhere to go; we’d have to start all over and retrain everybody. With the Microsoft solution, if we decided the cloud wasn’t meeting our changing needs, it would be easy to switch to on-premises versions of Microsoft Exchange Server or Microsoft SharePoint Server without having to retrain our whole staff.”
daniel
16 Nov 2011 10:30 PM
@ Tony Tai so if you don't like microsofts' cloud you can keep using it's expensive local apps, nice way out. seriously. Google actually does let you exit their products and hosts a page which shows you how to extract data which can be imported into just about any third party software.
Your training argument is rubbish too, and I actually didn't need to train my staff they just picked it up, i come on how hard is it to use a word processor, spreadsheet or email client...
I'm sticking with the ‘roach motel’, it's actually a nice place, perhaps you should pop in sometime.
16 Nov 2011 10:43 PM
@Robert Baker, @Daniel: It’s great that you brought up ease of use and cost. My colleague, Stephen, says it best in terms of Office 365: Quality Matters. (http://bit.ly/rAWgEK) . From his post…
Business owner, Karen Kotzen of Love My Lessons, coaches businesses in using productivity tools. : “I tried Google first, because it was free, but found that it wasn’t easy to use.”
Quality and value are key drivers for customers switching from Google Docs to Office 365, such as the 2-person non-profit D&L Representative Payee Services:
“We’re accustomed to using Microsoft Office products and wanted to continue to use them, so the compatibility issues with Google Docs caused concern,” says Paul Lovette, Vice President and Executive Manager for the nonprofit. “We were always worried, for example, that our forms’ layouts would be skewed by whatever formats Google chose.”
“What we get for a total of $12 a month is really priceless: instant availability, a robust suite of products, and the ability to synchronize documents between Office 365 and our workspaces,” says Lovette.
Then there is Total Cost of Ownership. See how it rolls up in“ The Hidden Google Tax”. (http://bit.ly/jbB4of)
daniel
16 Nov 2011 11:07 PM
@Tony Tai are you a robot? I'm telling you i am using google apps and it's simple to use. Stop quoting people i don't know telling me things are not are not right.
Dneptune
17 Nov 2011 6:04 PM
@ DANIEL: Contact me if you are serious about Going Google, I have a an excellent change management plan and cost saving plan for you!. dneptune@appstraction.com
17 Nov 2011 9:43 PM
@Daniel: As a manager of a brokerage firm, you seem to fight as hard for the success of technologies you choose as a Googler would.
I would love to learn how Microsoft can inspire just the kind of passion that you have as a customer. Let us know how we can reach you.
ju
18 Nov 2011 1:54 AM
@toni nai : I'm surprised we did not reach the Godwin point here.
Evan
20 Dec 2011 8:15 PM
Forgot one note. If you're tired of crappy biased market puke like this article and you have a google account you can block all entries from technet from showing up in the search results under google.com/dashboard.
Good bye technet. You used to be a good resource for Microsoft related information. Now you just peddle FUD and marketing propaganda.
20 Dec 2011 11:20 PM
@ Evan: Here are a few updates since publishing this post. Office 365 has earned CRN’s Best Cloud Application of the year accolade (http://bit.ly/vtIepY). Microsoft has driven forward on its cloud productivity roadmap in providing 30 new updates to the productivity service (http://bit.ly/sIhSKt). We have further detailed the Office 365 Trust Center, with transparency in areas such as compliance, security and privacy (http://bit.ly/vBXYmp).