Google Apps Team Edition – A Wise Move?

An article by Phil    No Comments

Welcome to Google Apps via kwout

The release of the Team Edition of Google Apps has been met with a mixture of delight and hostility. Google’s decision to assist and encourage the ad-hoc implementation of externally hosted groupware solutions has not been well received by some IT Managers who have expressed concerns over security, reliability, regulatory compliance and the ownership of organization’s IT strategy.

Others acknowledge the frustrations experienced by end users of unresponsive IT departments.

Web Worker Daily » Archive Collaborate and Subvert Your IS Department with Google Apps Team Edition « via kwout

An overview of the Team Edition features can be seen in this video.

A component of Google’s strategy appears to be the encouragement of bottom up adoption in large organizations leading to Premier Edition upgrades at $50 per user per year. Case Studies of SF Bay Pediatrics and Arizona State University who were early adopters of the Premier Edition are included below.

Security concerns about the team edition should be set in the context of current common practices which includes:

• sending documents as attachments in unencrypted emails
• carrying documents on data pens
• carrying sensitive documents on laptops
• mailing and loosing data CDs

The question is then whether security is endangered or enhanced by the use of encrypted web applications. The recent addition of Postini in the Premier edition provides a useful security enhancement, checking emails and messages to enforce regulatory compliance when social security, credit card and other sensitive information is detected.

The wisdom of adopting a bottom up approach to entering the enterprise remains to be seen. Once the dust from the hyperbole surrounding security and authority issues has settled the real work of evaluating functions and risk can begin. If nothing else, the launch had underlined the importance of engaging users in the process of managing their technology and security; particularly when expedient options are conveniently available.

I imagine some IT Directors may envy smaller organizations where budgets and staffing levels constrain the choices to a narrower set of options.