Google Apps

Google Apps is an online service operated by Google Inc., which was introduced in February 2006 and consists primarily of an e- mail inbox, as well as an office suite under a unique domain. It is comparable to Office 365 from Microsoft or the Zoho suite. From August 2007 Google Apps was made available internationally in more than two dozen languages.

History

In the spring of 2006, the collaboration between Google and the City College began in San Jose, was introduced under which Gmail as a technological platform for the mailboxes of students. In August of the same year Google announced then to Google Apps for Your Domain, so to speak, is the first version of the service. Core of the offer was to unlock a custom domain for use with various Google products. Only a few months Google Apps for Business was presented, the first aimed specifically at companies. It contained, besides Gmail and Google calendar and contacts as well as software for word processing, spreadsheets and presentations under the name Google Docs, as well as 10 GB of storage for each user and a guaranteed availability.

Under the name of Google Apps for Education, a variant was launched, which is identical in essence with Google Apps for Business - with the exception of the integration of Google Groups. This service is enabled by default for universities and other educational institutions, which does not apply to the business version. In April 2010 it was announced that Oregon was the first state of the United States all public schools using Google Apps offering, bringing a nationwide installation of the online service was carried out in education for the first time. Previously, schools in Kenya and Rwanda have already been migrated to Google Apps for Education. In July, Google expanded its portfolio to include Google Apps for Government, which is specifically tailored to the authorities and to take into account their requirements for IT security and data protection. Initially the focus was on the United States, and later the service was officially extended to other countries.

In December 2012, the developers announced to discontinue the free version of Google Apps. The reason a better separation between home and business users was called - the step was nevertheless publicly criticized, although he had no effect on existing customers. Since then, the service is only as Google Apps for Business and Google Apps for Government and Google Apps for Education available, the latter variant for people outside the administration is still available for free.

Functions

Google Apps includes all versions at least Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Drive with office software, Google Talk, Google Sites and Google Mobile Sync. The latter service enables businesses and other organizations, the synchronization of mobile devices through the Exchange protocol, while the corresponding function has been set to private. All applications from Google Apps are configured via the so-called Google Admin Console, which was last revised in May 2013 and can be activated and deactivated individually there.

Optionally can be booked with Google Apps Vault central archiving of certain content, thereby limiting the available memory of the apps tariffs is virtually eliminated. Each Google account, which is managed through Google Apps can theoretically also access all other services of the company, such as Google AdSense or YouTube. Also a notification in Google Chrome, for example. However, Google stressed that the contractually agreed service level agreement does not apply to these offers, but only for the core services. Since the end of 2011, administrators have the option of allowing the use of the social network Google for managed user accounts or block.

In early 2010, Google opened its infrastructure for third parties. This software can provide the so-called Google Apps Marketplace, acquire businesses and other organizations with an existing account with Google Apps for Business and used without additional registration. The acquisition with the Education or Government - variant is limited. The third hosting services is usually done using the Google App Engine, on which can be your own applications distributed in a Google Apps organization.

User

As part of the Google I / O 2012 declared the operators, Google Apps for Business will used by more than five million companies. These include, according to official information, for example Rocket Internet or Hoffmann -La Roche. They also state that Google Apps for Education of 66 of the top 100 universities in the United States used in 2010 announced Google ten million active users of this variant. Any dissemination of Google Apps for Government, there are no reliable statistics - however, some states expressly prohibited the use of the service, such as Sweden in June 2013.

In direct comparison to Office 365 Google Apps will be evaluated by experts overwhelmingly positive. Occasionally, but also criticism of the privacy or security, and the customer service from Google is voiced, which was not as mature as compared to Microsoft. At least the concerns regarding the security have prompted Google to let Google Apps finally certify the middle of 2012 by Ernst & Young to the ISO standard 27001.

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