Ever wondered why Microsoft is not moving its Office System online in order to respond to Google Apps? Of course that there is a basic difference between the business models of the two companies. Microsoft is the adept of Software plus Service, while Google takes on the Software as Service approach, but this has little to do with it. The fact of the matter is that Google Apps is not even remotely close to competing with the Office 2007 System. This is the conclusion presented by a report from the Burton Group. In the "Google Apps in the Enterprise: A Promotion-Enhancing or Career-Limiting Move for Enterprise Architects?" study, Senior Analyst Guy Creese reveals that Google Apps is just in its infancy and that it shouldn't be considered a viable alternative to Microsoft's Office 2007, or any other productivity suite available.

"Google has caught the attention of enterprises with the low price of its Google Apps Premier Edition (GAPE) solution. However, there's a catch: limited functionality and new information technology (IT) risks. Enterprises need to recognize that going with GAPE means buying into a delivery model, product, and vendor set that is relatively new and unproven," commented Creese about the Mountain View's timid steps into delivering a productivity suite for the corporate environment at $50/user account/year.

There are a few benefits associated with adopting the Google Apps Premier Edition. Among them the fact that users will not have to install any software, deal with upgrade deployments, security updates, as the Mountain View's online offerings come with the least amount of management possible. Additionally, there is no need for power-user licenses, local storage of documents with the inherent issues of privacy is no longer a concern and remote access is streamlined to its full potential.

Of course that the Burton Group's report also mentions some downsides. Creese underscored the fact that Google Apps comes with limited support for sophisticated document formats, in addition to the fact that Google Docs, Spreadsheets and Presentations offer only limited and rudimentary functionality. Moreover, online data storage is not without risks, and the Mountain View company emphasized the fact that it cannot be held responsible for any lost information. Uptime is also a problem. Google guarantees that only Gmail will be fully functional for up to 99.9% of the time.