Moving to the cloud, be it Google Apps or any other service, raises a valid questions for all businesses that need resolving to everyone’s satisfaction.

Privacy
Will anyone in Google be able to see/use my company information?

The short answer is No!

To put it simply, Google does not own your data. They do not take a position on whether the data belongs to the institution signing up for Apps, or the individual user (that’s between the two of you), but they know it doesn’t belong to them!

Read more on how Google views your data …

Security
Who knows how secure the servers are, and what about the data travelling across the public Internet?

Google operates one of the most robust networks of distributed datacenters in the world. The protection of the data and intellectual property on these servers is their top priority, with extensive resources dedicated to maintaining data security.

Read more on how Google secures your data …

NZ Internet link
We have only one link out of NZ and what if it gets bombed by Al-Qaeda?
We’ve really been asked this and, joking aside, it is a valid question about the apparent reliance of all cloud services to be permanently connected to the Internet. The rapid move to HTML5 by all major web browsers will deliver off-line access to Google Apps and most online services.

Read more about offline access …

Change
Why bother changing, we can do everything on our own machines which we’ve paid good money for?
Indeed if you can truly operate at the scale, openness, accessibility and at the rate of innovation of Google then we see no reason to move to the cheaper services provided. If, however, you are in the same boat as most business and are looking to both streamline your costs AND provide a greater flexibility to your business then Google Apps should always be on your “must review” list.

Read more about transforming your business …

Word
If it just doesn’t have all the features of Microsoft Word it can’t be that good. no?
The short answer is No!

There is, however, a large difference between the approaches of traditional office application vendors (Microsoft for instance) and Google. In a nutshell Google Apps is “designed for the teams of tomorrow, not the office workers of today”.

Find out for yourself how Google Apps provides for your teams …

Get out
How do we get out of Google once we’ve given all our data to them?
To put it simply, Google does not own your data and as such are constantly working towards making it a “one-click exit” for you to get back all your data in a common format that you can then import into other services.

Read more about exporting your data …

Patriot Act
Just because Google says it “won’t do evil” with our data doesn’t mean the US Government won’t force it to with the Patriot Act!
Google complies with valid legal process. It is Google’s policy to notify users before turning over their data whenever possible and legally permissible.

WaveAdept can assist all organisations through this risk assessment process and provide the conduit to discussions with the appropriate Google Enterprise staff when required – contact us for details.

Read more about legal implications …

Bleeding edge
It sounds good but we’re not a company to use the new “cool” stuff just for the sake of it, we’ve got a business to run!
Precisely! You are not in the email / calendar business and yet you hire staff, consume resources and focus on running these services for yourself – give it to those that make it their business and then you can concentrate totally on yours.

Cloud services in general have been used by major corporations for the past 5+ years and Google Apps is now over 4 years old and used by millions of users and organisations of all sizes.

You are not alone, read about other high profile organisations that have ‘gone Google’ …

Integration
We have many internal systems we’ve written that rely on email, how on earth can Gmail support them?
Google Apps should no longer be viewed as merely a service to be consumed but a platform to be built upon. As each requirement will be unique we are happy to talk with you about your needs – contact us

Read more about integrating your sytems with Google Apps …

Support
Google doesn’t even have an office here in NZ, what happens when I can’t get to my email?
Not quite true, Google does have offices and senior Google Enterprise employees based in New Zealand (and jolly helpful people they are). Note that a main Google Enterprise centre is located in Sydney, Australia a mere hop, skip and jump away over the Tasman.

For that local, cost effective and extremely friendly support may we humbly suggest us. We can support your whole organisation (from the small start up to the multi-1,000 employee corporations) – contact us to discuss your support needs.

Case Study: Strategia

Strategia had been struggling with their locally hosted email and calendaring for some time, and needed a better way to do things.

Read about this and other solutions here