Google Apps and Outlook

Do you own a business? Are you a fan of Google applications like Gmail and Google Calendar? If so, you may have heard of Google Apps. It takes Gmail and other popular Google programs and adds features and support that make them great for use in a business environment. Google Apps allows you to have email addresses with your own domain name, rather than with "@google.com" as regular Gmail accounts require. Google Apps is loaded with features that make it a powerful tool for small (and not so small) businesses.

What About Outlook?

But what does this have to do with someone like you who is committed to using Outlook? Potentially a lot. If you (and your staff if you're running a small business) use Outlook primarily for email, contacts, and the calendar, Google Apps could be a great solution for you. The Premier Edition of Google Apps now includes Google Apps Sync for Microsoft Outlook. This product, which I'll call Apps Sync from now on just to save typing, is an Outlook plug-in that allows Outlook 2003 and 2007 to synchronize with Gmail and the Google Calendar.

If you're an individual user of Outlook, Apps Sync means your email, contacts, and calendar are securely stored and backed up by Google, while still fully accessible through your familiar Outlook interface. You'll get all the benefits of Gmail's massive storage, effective junk mail filtering, and automatic message threading right in Outlook. Even better, because your information is synchronized between Google Apps and Outlook, you have access to your Outlook data from any web browser anywhere in the world. If you need your data to be safe, or you need to have access to it wherever you are in the world, this could be a great solution for you.

If you are running a small business and need to work with the rest of your team, Google Apps and the Apps Sync plug-in are even more valuable. That's because you'll get many of the benefits of connecting your Outlook users to a Microsoft Exchange server, without the cost and complications of using Exchange. Imagine being able to do things like schedule meetings or access a Global Address List without the overhead and headaches of a corporate Exchange server.

Pros of Using Google Apps Sync for Microsoft Outlook

The benefits of using Apps Sync include:

• Enterprise class email hosted by Google
• Anytime, anywhere access to your email, contacts, and calendar from any web-capable device
• Exchange-like capabilities at a fraction of the cost or hassle
• 99.9% uptime, scalability, and security provided by Google
• You can focus on managing your business, not your infrastructure

Cons of Using Google Apps Sync for Microsoft Outlook

While using Google Apps and the Apps Sync plug-in are many, there are a few drawbacks. These include:

• No support for Outlook's Tasks and Notes so these remain local to the machine running Outlook
• You need to use Google Apps Premier or Education editions, so there is a small ($50/user) yearly cost

Watch this video to learn more about Google Apps Sync for Microsoft Outlook: