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Topic: Google

Google quietly hooks into Microsoft's enterprise cash cows

Summary: The Google strategy appears to be to hook into Microsoft's key products like Exchange and Office and relegate them as plumbing.

Larry Dignan

By for Between the Lines |

Google has rolled out a something called Google Messaging Continuity, which is a fancy way to allow enterprises to back up Microsoft Exchange systems to the cloud. In the big picture, the Google strategy appears to be to hook into Microsoft's key products and relegate them as plumbing.

Google Messaging Continuity has a simple premise. In a nutshell, Google is offering a disaster recovery system for email. In a blog post, Google said that its new offering, which is powered by Postini, replicates email accounts on Microsoft Exchange to the cloud via Gmail, Calendar and Contacts. If there's an outage you back up to Gmail.

As Mary Jo Foley noted:

Why is Google doing this? It’s another way to try to win over Microsoft users to Google Apps, as Google’s execs acknowledge. If and when the Exchange user decides to move to Google Apps, their e-mail, calendar and contacts will already be synced, easing migration.

If we connect the dots here, we see the beginning of a broader strategy. Last month, Google launched a Microsoft Office connector. The gist: Google's Cloud Connect for Microsoft Office allows you to sync docs into Google's cloud and collaborate. It's a back door introduction to Google Docs.

These efforts are nice little ways to introduce Microsoft customers to Google Apps. It remains to be seen if this effort pays off down the line, but it certainly can't hurt Google's cause.

Topics: Google, Browser, Cloud, Collaboration, Data Centers, Microsoft

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25 comments
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  • They should call Google ...

    ... the Wile E. Coyote of the enterprise. Google keeps trying, and trying, and trying ... and keeps getting clobbered in the end.

    The next time you hear about Google trying to enter the enterprise, you should grab some popcorn and your favorite soda, and get ready to be entertained!

    If MS had performed 1/10 th as badly as Google in the consumer market, you wouldn't hear the end of it.
    P. Douglas
    Reply Vote

    • There are serious problems with MS legacy sheeet. More people are

      switching to Google infrastructure for email, doc sharing all the time. This is a great move by Google to help people shore up fragile MS sheet and prepare for the eventual migrations.
      DonnieBoy
      Reply Vote

      • RE: There are serious problems with MS

        @DonnieBoy True, but as people switch over to google, they are taking the risk of getting spied on. Google has been doing this through their browser and I belief they are planning to do the same with their apps.
        MrElectrifyer
        Reply Vote

      • RE: Google quietly hooks into Microsoft's enterprise cash cows

        @DonnieBoy
        Second rate, wanna be, products will not sway any Microsoft users, and will leave Google yet another also ran entity. But, thank them for playing!
        eargasm
        Reply Vote

      • Actually, the longer that enterprises use Exchange and Sharepoint, the more

        they are at risk. If they switchover to Google services with Postini, they will be much safer.
        DonnieBoy
        Reply Vote

      • RE: Google quietly hooks into Microsoft's enterprise cash cows

        @DonnieBoy What are you the new breed of Google fanboi, lets see would I trust any company that uses Google Apps to deal with my proprietary business information, knowing full well that Google has in the past been forced to admit that is stole information and passwords from wireless users through their Streetview project. Their explanation that software was included accidently into the application software, give me a break what need was their for that particular kind of software in a project to photograph streetscapes. You are aware that every time you use the Chrome browser that it calls home before even dispaying the desktop and a data squirt is involved, who knows what information is being sent each time about you the user. I don't know, why would I want to deal with any company that was so incompetent that they couldn't backup their own Exchange and Sharepoint Data and would trust Google with that data, thats a security breach if I ever saw one. Is IT so incompetent these days that they would trust secure data with a company like Google.
        Rndmacts
        Reply Vote

  • Hey Google

    No one wants you. Go away. Take your sneakiness and privacy issues elsewhere.
    The one and only, Cylon Centurion
    Reply Vote

    • RE: Google quietly hooks into Microsoft's enterprise cash cows

      @Cylon Centurion 0005 Where should they go? The web is the web. Unless you know of another web somewhere, they are pretty much entrenched now in our daily lives.
      GhostinthePC
      Reply Vote

      • RE: Google quietly hooks into Microsoft's enterprise cash cows

        @NeoMorpheus

        entrenched? Only if you let them. I do not use Google search or ANY Google services. There is no reason to use them when there are plenty of other and often better solutions out there.
        colecrew
        Reply Vote

    • They are just making and easy transition away from fragile, buggy, insecure

      Microsoft junk. This is really great!!!!!!!!!!
      DonnieBoy
      Reply Vote

  • Google is the leech of the tech indusry

    First they ride Apple's coat tail now they're picking up the crumbs from Microsoft.
    iPad-awan
    Reply Vote

    • No, this is much different. They are just making an easy way to backup

      old legacy MS junk, and it will also allow an eventual smooth migration when the time is right. Great that Google is helping shore up weaknesses in MS bloatware and help with a transition path.
      DonnieBoy
      Reply Vote

      • RE: Google quietly hooks into Microsoft's enterprise cash cows

        @DonnieBoy - while we know you wear the Google knee pads. However, the transition will occur when Google can also provide decent functionality replacement. Right now they can't they have lost two contracts - despite loyalty on either side - they could not meet the requirements...period. When they do then what you have above for smooth migration, will be some what accurate. They have some negative baggage that comes with them, that the Enterprise will have to be convinced otherwise (searching your documents/email for marketing). And before you go off on one of your childish MS rants. We use both here (with about 1200 users WW), and Google Docs has been used to collaborate which it does very well as long as it is simple. But people do not like the interface and or the lack of functionality. Example - perform a simple filter on a spreadsheet for analysis. Now do the same in OO or Office. They have a long way to go. But they are good for traffic cop and to share 00 or Office documents.
        ItsTheBottomLine
        Reply Vote

      • Google already provides solutions much more secure than Exchange and

        Sharepoint. As we move away from printing on 8.5x11, MS Office is looking more ridiculous all the time.
        DonnieBoy
        Reply Vote

  • Hooks into their cash cows?

    A more accurate headline would be "tries to hook into their cash cows"
    otaddy
    Reply Vote

  • RE: Google quietly hooks into Microsoft's enterprise cash cows

    It's an attempt to reproduce the methods Microsoft successfully used in the 90's when we had the tools to access and migrate the different network platforms, Novell, Services for Unix, etc
    Eddy-ICUR12
    Reply Vote

  • Let the users decide!

    My job as an IT director is to provide the tools for the users, not to force them one way or the other based on if I like google or microsoft. I was raised on ms and exchange, but migrated to g-apps 4 years ago. If I tried to move the users back to outlook/exchange I would probably loose my job. In this case the users were the boss, not me.
    paulnye
    Reply Vote

    • RE: Google quietly hooks into Microsoft's enterprise cash cows

      @paulnye <br><br>Might want to do some research into what exactly is due diligence...
      rtk
      Reply Vote

      • Sounds like he hit the nail on the head. Outlook is a real piece of sheeet.

        nt.
        DonnieBoy
        Reply Vote

  • RE: Google quietly hooks into Microsoft's enterprise cash cows

    Basically, anyone/any corporation that has concerns over the perception and fear of lack of privacy when using Google's online services/cloud offerings will run away from this.

    My thought is that if some enterprise using Exchange doesn't *already* have a backup solution in place then their IT folks should start looking for a new job.
    PollyProteus
    Reply Vote
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