Microsoft strikes back at Google on e-mail back-up plan
Summary: It took a week, but Microsoft execs have come out swinging against Google's plan for providing e-mail back-up for Exchange.
It took a week, but Microsoft execs have come out swinging against Google's plan for providing e-mail back-up for Exchange.
Google announced its $25 per user/per year Google Message Continuity service on December 9. When I asked Microsoft execs for their initial take on Google's plan to back-up Exchange with Gmail, I got a fairly bland statement from a spokesperson. ("With their announcement, Google joins an existing list of email continuity providers for Exchange.")
On December 16, however, Microsoft went on the offensive against Google with a couple of strongly-worded blog posts. One claimed that Google Message Continuity is cumbersome and costly. In the event there's an Exchange outage, "Exchange will automatically failover if the customer has HA (high availability) setup for Exchange, which most customers do," said Tom Rizzo, a Senior Director for Microsoft Online services.
Microsoft execs noted that Exchange 2010 has high-availability back-up built into the product, and that various third-party partners offer back-up services for older versions of Exchange. (It's worth noting that Google's new backup offering backs up Exchange 2003 and 2007, not Exchange 2010.)
"Vendors like (Microsoft partners) Live Office and Dell have provided Exchange services for many years and have dedicated Microsoft Certified Exchange Professionals driving and implementing their solutions. This level of knowledge and support of Exchange should be required of any vendor being considered," blogged Julia White, Senior Director, Exchange Product Management.
I'm not surprised Microsoft is none too keen on Google's attempt to gain a toehold in targeting Redmond's established business customer base with its new enterprise backup service. But I'm still wondering if and when Microsoft will start really pushing Exchange Online, its own hosted e-mail solution, as a back-up solution for users running older Exchange servers. So far, that's not a main marketing message from the Softies....
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Talkback
Exchange has 0 reliability built in
Smart companies do not run any version of Exchange.
that right!!
i cant belive there are millions of dumb companys out there running exchange - they should just take your word for it and be better off!!
RE: Microsoft strikes back at Google on e-mail back-up plan
No failover clustering automatically? Database a huge pain to back up and restore? I highly doubt you have even used exchange. Just because you believe it in your simple little mind does not make it true. I cannot think of one thing you have slammed Microsoft for that is even remotely factual. Didn't you mother ever tell you not to lie? Now go stand in the corner.
RE: Microsoft strikes back at Google on e-mail back-up plan
RE: Microsoft strikes back at Google on e-mail back-up plan
RE: Microsoft strikes back at Google on e-mail back-up plan
RE: Microsoft strikes back at Google on e-mail back-up plan
RE: Microsoft strikes back at Google on e-mail back-up plan
Exchange 2007 SP2
and anything newer will work with the built in Windows Backup.
And besides this little tiff has absolutely nothing to do with backup, its about high availability and that too is baked into Exchange.
RE: Microsoft strikes back at Google on e-mail back-up plan
No it doesn't feel like a strike back especially as Google are going after 2003 and 2007 customers only - basically those with older systems that are more likely to fail, run by companies who are hesitant to upgrade and may well like the idea of a cheaper system!
RE: Microsoft strikes back at Google on e-mail back-up plan
Go Mimecast!
One of my last projects before leaving my previous employer six months ago was implementing Mimecast and they're very, very good. Friends I still have there are very happy with them.
RE: Microsoft strikes back at Google on e-mail back-up plan
Well, it is not too surprising that Microsoft does not like Google filling
half agreed
You know me, and that I trust Google about as far as I can throw them, but I think the good they're doing here is indirect - they're raising sea level for everyone by forcing the incumbents - including Microsoft - to step up their game. Some will likely find their needs met with Google's offering, others will still rely on third party software and services. Regardless, it's likely that the next wave of releases will be significantly better across the board because Google's made a compelling service that undercuts...basically everyone.
Joey
RE: Microsoft strikes back at Google on e-mail back-up plan
Ummm, huh? I know you probably know 0 about how Exchange works so I'd like to be enlightened by what holes this fills in their product line. Exchange supports HA, supports clustering, supports multiple servers, mailbox replication, failover, etc, etc, etc... In fact it does so in a much more robust way. How much experience do you have with users? I can tell you from experience that a failover system that requires users to know an alternate place to go get their e-mail will not be a success with end users.
This does nothing, and I mean absolutely nothing, that hasn't been available since at least Exchange 2007 and even Exchange 2003 Enterprise was capable of it. There are also many other continuity providers out there that have been doing this for 10+ years with people who know Exchange inside and out supporting those products. Why would you go to Google, who is doing this as nothing more to get a foot in the door, so to speak.
Also with Office 365 you'll be able to run coexistence with Exchange 2010 and their online service, so if your server goes down your users won't even know that something changed. And that's only $24/year per mailbox.
DonnieBoy, if you actually put in the time into
They exist for no other purpose then to attempt to lure people away from working, reliable, solutions to a many time, lesser offering of Google's.
RE: Microsoft strikes back at Google on e-mail back-up plan
Oh, you mean like a managed solution from BPOS that can scale to any enterprise?
Put your paper hat on and get back to the fry machine, your break is over!
Cheap way to split your bets
Makes business sense for some subset of companies, I would think.
Support
I have never seen a phone number to call when you have a problem. This is a case of you get what you pay for. People would go to other people because they focus on and know Exchange and have support available when there is a problem.
I've migrated three Exchange server to Gmail, all three switched to Exchange Online or BPOS over the course of the last year. Gmail didn't do what they wanted or needed, and their IMAP support for Outlook sucks.