The argument for
- Low up-front cost of only $US50 per user per year
- Distributed data centres enable quick access to customer information worldwide
- Search uses Google’s innovative technology — a company with a proven online heritage
- Collaboration allows everybody to work together across multiple applications and common services
- Open standards and simplified IT environment that leverages Google’s infrastructure instead of in-house architecture
The argument against
- Information is controlled and maintained by Google, which forces a reliance on Google’s enterprise security and backup reputation
- Many corporate requirements cannot always be met with Google Apps alone and require third party add-ons
- No proven track record in meeting enterprise support needs
- Lack of a clear product roadmap for companies
- Google has experienced significant downtime, and has already broken its 99.9 per cent uptime SLA
Read more about Google Apps in the enterprise is CIO's indepth report, Going Google.
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