Look Ma, No Enterprise Server
Posted by: Gary Potterfield

My timing was way off. On the day we signed our third Internet Service Provider (ISP) contract in three years, I attended a webinar on something called Google Apps. And for the next six months, I counted the days to when Vox|Optima could join the world of cloud computing.

We’re a small business without a dedicated IT department, but with somewhat complex IT requirements. We’re spread across the country with most Voxers working from home offices, but some on-site behind client firewalls. We are absolutely dependent on reliable connectivity, and the traditional ISP solution just wasn’t cutting it. Connectivity was sporadic, and resolving IT issues was a constant drain on productivity.

Google Apps is Google’s entry in the emerging world of cloud computing. Everything is Web-based. It consists of email (Gmail), word processing (MS Word compatible), spreadsheets (Excel compatible), presentations (PowerPoint compatible), calendars, video storage, Google Talk (text, audio and video chat) and Sites (corporate Intranet; Sharepoint-like features). The premier version of Google Apps includes a corporate email address (@voxoptima, not @gmail), no ads, and a 25 gb mailbox for each employee. All this for $50 per employee per year.

As soon as our traditional ISP contract expired, we made the jump to Google Apps, and we haven’t looked back. Once we had everyone set up with their Google accounts, our IT issues nearly vanished immediately. Why? Because all you need for Google Apps is an Internet connection and pretty much any Web browser. There’s no email software to install and update, though popular email programs (we’ve used Microsoft Outlook and Entourage, and Apple Mail) can easily be configured as IMAP clients.

It doesn’t matter if you’re a PC or a Mac user (we’ve been both). Your mail never gets lost and your saved mail folders are always only a few keystrokes away, not left on your desktop computer or laptop at home. You can send huge email attachments. You can collaborate on documents in real time. You can chat with fellow employees without leaving your email account. All this, and Vox|Optima’s ISP costs dropped about 500 percent, not to mention recovering the hidden costs of our former lost productivity.

Is Google Apps perfect? No. The Google Documents applications (word processing, spreadsheet and presentation) are functional and familiar, but not nearly as robust as their Microsoft cousins. We still use the Microsoft Office applications for much of our offline work, but then we upload the finished documents to Google Apps. For Outlook users, Gmail may take some getting used to. But once you’ve used it for a week or so, you’ll see the benefits of email in the cloud far outweigh the negatives. Plus, if you’re really stuck on Outlook or some other email client, you can still use it with Gmail via Pop or IMAP.

I think I speak for all Voxers when I say we’re lovin’ the cloud. We’re certainly not Google Apps technical pros, but we’re experienced users and we’re happy to share our experiences with you. Call us, email us, or better yet, IM us on Google Talk and we’ll video chat, just because we can!