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| Google Apps Takes On Corporate Messaging With Postini |
| Tuesday, 16 October 2007 | |
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Google took a serious run at the corporate messaging space Wednesday, announcing that Google Apps Premier Addition was integrating security, storage and compliance services from Postini. Postini, an email service provider with 35,000 business customers and 10 million users globally, was bought by Google July 19. "With Postini, we saw the potential to deliver a more complete hosted solution for businesses of all sizes," Dave Girouard, vice president and general manager of Google Enterprise, said in a statement. The move Wednesday is the latest in a series of forays Google is making into the enterprise space. Google Apps Premier Addition goes up against established enterprise messaging services, most prominently Lotus Notes from IBM (NYSE:IBM) and Microsoft (NSDQ:MSFT) Exchange. Google Apps includes a suite of services, such as GMail, Docs, Calendar and GTalk, which are available for business use. However, with Postini, Google Apps Premier Edition will now have a large customer base from which to draw. Joss Ings-Chambers, sales director at Postini partner Grove, one of the largest Positini resellers with more than 250 000 end-users, said: “We have a very close relationship with Postini and make full use of all the support and training it offers. It is truly a proper partnership and that means Google applications and services will also be part of the portfolio of premium security and compliance services we offer” “Its tools allow us instant control, enabling us to assist our customers with their security needs.” Conversely, Google messaging services alone previously scared off some potential customers, because you did not know who to call and this customer service for Google Apps and other security solutions is what makes Grove Group so useful in selling Google Apps. Google told Grove Group and other partners Wednesday that more products and services were coming in the future. "We want our valued resellers to know that we will continue to honor our existing agreements with you and respect your existing customer relationships," Google said in a statement to Excel Micro, Grove Group and other partners. "We want to encourage you to continue selling Postini solutions per our existing agreements. In addition, we plan to open the door for you to offer new Google products to your customers and prospects." Dana Gardner, principal analyst of Interarbor Solutions, also said Google's messaging suite may be well positioned for corporate use. "Google has been aggressive in developing its email applications. They've been successful in organizations like universities. Now, it's logical they are getting better security into this type of account as they point toward SMBs and enterprises. They are able to offer more and more services, so they may see more success." The new features added to Google Apps Premier Edition allow customers to configure spam and virus filtering, customized to each business user. Customers can centrally manage content policy based on business policy rules, and they can also create and manage user group policies. Google Apps Premier Edition also adds an email routing feature that lets organizations use Google Apps along with another email application. Google also increased email storage to 25 GB per user, more than doubling the capacity of inboxes to from 10 GB per user. For more info call Grove Press Office on 0044 870 224 0432 or email This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it |
