There are reasons it is offered for free. It is still in beta, isn't it?
When you go down the list, it seems there is a lot that their Outlook connector cannot do: http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=147751 From: Joe Pochedley [mailto:joe.poched...@fivesgroup.com] Sent: Wednesday, June 10, 2009 10:35 AM To: MS-Exchange Admin Issues Subject: RE: Is Exchange Doomed? I too find it hard to believe that Gmail would be replacing Exchange in any organization that really uses Exchange for more than passing email messages back and forth. Gmail just doesn't have the same feature set yet. I use gmail to host my own personal domain and I have a number of friends who do too. The main reason I went with Google is because it was free. The ads aren't intrusive, so I can deal with them. I wouldn't be surprised if my domain and theirs were counted in the 1.75 million businesses who are using Google apps.. how do they know I'm not a business? So, the number may be accurate as far as Google's counting on the number of group "domains" but it still likely doesn't provide the whole picture. I can confirm that Google is offering their service for free to schools. I have a friend who's an admin at a community college in Michigan that just moved all their student's email accounts over to gmail. No cost to the college. From: Louis, Joe [mailto:jlo...@guardianalarm.com] Sent: Wednesday, June 10, 2009 1:06 PM To: MS-Exchange Admin Issues Subject: RE: Is Exchange Doomed? I just find it hard to believe that Google will be replacing Exchange at the corporate end. While that may be their goal, they've been saying that for many years. The same holds true for the MS Office "cloud" model. Where they are making inroads are at a number of public schools, colleges, etc that are using Google email brand (but still buying Office). They are replacing *Nix mail platforms and Netware. Of the ones I can think of, none of them had Exchange. And I'm sure the schools are getting a huge break on it (if not for free). Gmail is great. Not only has it been convenient, but it's been free. I also don't think that Gmail would be nearly as popular as it is if there was a cost to the end user. From: Carl Houseman [mailto:c.house...@gmail.com] Sent: Wednesday, June 10, 2009 12:24 PM To: MS-Exchange Admin Issues Subject: RE: Is Exchange Doomed? "Around 1.75 million businesses are using Google Apps"? 1.75 million USERS I would believe, not businesses. Exchange in your local shop may be doomed, MS wants you to buy it as a cloud service too. It was only a matter of time before somebody came up with reasonable competition. Carl From: Roger Wright [mailto:rwri...@evatone.com] Sent: Wednesday, June 10, 2009 12:01 PM To: MS-Exchange Admin Issues Subject: Is Exchange Doomed? http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10260879-2.html Roger Wright Network Administrator Evatone, Inc. 727.572.7076 x388 _____ ~ Ninja Email Security with Cloudmark Spam Engine Gets Image Spam ~ ~ http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Ninja ~
