Ring Alpha recently undertook the task of setting up and migrating a
complete business over to the cloud. The task included migrating all of
the User Accounts, Email, Documents, Calendars and Contacts to Google
Applications for Business.
If you’re thinking about improving your availability, cost savings and
ensuring your documents are backed up and shared then give Ring Alpha
a call to see how we can help you migrate
Google Applications represents significant benefits over hosting your
own services and here are a few key
reasons:
### Proven cost savings
Google's web-based messaging and collaboration apps require no hardware
or software and
need minimal administration, creating tremendous time and cost savings
for businesses.
End users can use the familiar Microsoft Outlook
interface for email, contacts and calendar as they transition to Gmail
and Google
Calendar.
A leading research firm found that Google Apps is as little as 1/3 the
total cost of
competing solutions.
Want to see how much you could save with Google Apps compared to
Microsoft Exchange 2007?
### 50 times more storage than the industry average
Each employee gets 25 GB for email storage, so they can keep important
messages and find
them instantly with built-in Google search.
Gmail is designed so employees can spend less time managing their
inboxes, and more time
being productive. Time-saving features like message threading, message
labels, fast
message search and powerful spam filtering help employees work
efficiently with high
volumes of email.
### Mobile email, calendar and IM access
With several options for accessing their information while on the go,
employees can be
productive with Google Apps even when they're not at their desks.
At no extra charge, Google Apps supports over-the-air mobile access on
BlackBerry
devices, the iPhone, Windows Mobile, Android and many less powerful
phones.
### 99.9% uptime reliability guarantee with synchronous replication
We guarantee that Google Apps will be available at least 99.9% of the
time, so your
employees are more productive and so you can worry less about system
downtime.\*\*
With synchronous replication, your data and activity in Gmail, Google
Calendar, Google
Docs and Google Sites is simultaneously preserved in multiple secure
data centers. If one
data center is unable to serve your requests, the system is designed to
instantly fall
back to another data center that can serve your account with no
interruption in service.
The Radicati Group found that Microsoft Exchange typically has 60
minutes of unplanned
downtime per month. Google Apps customers typically experience less
than 15 minutes of
downtime per month.
### Information security and compliance
When you trust your company's information to Google, you can be
confident that your
critical information is safe and secure.
Google's information security team, including some of the world's
foremost experts
in information, application and network security, are focused on
keeping your information
safe. Google and many other customers trust this system with highly
sensitive corporate
data.
Businesses get these customizable security features with Google
Apps:
- Custom spam and inbound mail filtering tools, powered by Postini, to
complement
powerful spam filters that automatically work with no up-front
configuration.
- Custom outbound mail filtering tools to prevent sensitive
information from being
distributed, powered by Postini.
- Custom information sharing rules to determine how broadly employees
are allowed to
share with Google Docs, Google Calendar and Google Sites.
- Custom password length requirements and visual strength indicators
to help employees
pick secure passwords.
- Enforced SSL connections with Google Apps to ensure secure HTTPS
access.
- Optional email archiving, up to 10 years of retention.
### Full administrative and data control
Administrators can deeply customize Google Apps to meet their technical,
branding and
business requirements.
Integration options let you connect Google Apps to your existing IT
infrastructure.
- Single sign-on API connects Google Apps to your existing
authentication system.
- User provisioning utility and API connect Google Apps to your
existing user directory
system.
- Email routing and email gateway support let you run Google Apps
alongside an existing
email solution.
- Email migration utility and API let you bring mail from your
existing email solution
into Google Apps.
System branding and data ownership give Google Apps your look and feel,
and ensures
customer ownership of employee data.
- Custom user accounts on your compay's internet domain.
- Custom logo and colors in the applications.
- Contractual customer ownership of employee data.
### Helpful 24/7 customer support
Google Apps is highly reliable and easy to operate, but support is
available for
administrators should you need it.
Support options
include:
- Phone support for critical issues
- Email support
- Self-service online support
Google Apps also has a deep network of partners ready to help businesses
with
deployment, data migration, user training, system integration and
custom application
development.
\*\* The 99.9% uptime SLA for Google Apps is offered to organizations
using Google
Apps for Business, as described in the Google Apps for Business Terms
of Service.