14 DAY TRIAL // Yesterday, the search giant Google released one more flavor of the Google Apps for your Domain, a solution meant to expand the power of Google's services to enterprise users. Google Apps for your Domain Premier Edition was renamed to just Google Apps, being available for $50 per account but all the new users receive a free trial until April 30th, 2007. Although the service was released yesterday, the company announces the new flavor today, presenting the main advantages of the Google Apps Premier Edition.
"Now, I'm excited to tell you that our baby has finally graduated and is entering the business world. Google Apps Premier Edition is a new version designed to take on all the challenges presented by businesses with complex IT needs. For $50 per account per year, you get the whole Google Apps package plus many new business-oriented features, including access to our APIs and partner solutions (so it's easy to integrate with existing systems), conference room scheduling for Calendar, 10GB of inbox storage, extended business hours phone support, and mobile access to your email on BlackBerry devices (just in case you can't get enough at the office)," Derek Parham, Lead Software Engineer, Google Apps, sustained on the official blog of the company.
As you might know, Google Apps is compatible with many other Google products including Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Talk, Home Page and starting today, Docs & Spreadsheets. It seems like the product is really attractive for other well-known companies that already registered for the service: Procter & Gamble, General Electric Corporation, Prudential, and SF Bay Pediatrics.
These are the most important features provided by Google Apps Premier Edition and mentioned in the press release published on Google's page:
- 10 GBs of storage per user - Offers about 100 times the storage of the average corporate mailbox, eliminating the need to frequently delete email. - APIs for business integration - APIs for data migration, user provisioning, single sign-on, and mail gateways enable businesses to further customize the service for unique environments. - 99.9 % uptime - Service Level Agreements for high availability of Gmail, with Google monitoring and crediting customers if service levels are not met. - 24x7 support for critical issues - Includes extended business hours telephone support for administrators. - Advertising optional - Advertising is turned off by default, but businesses can choose to include Google's relevant target-based ads if desired. - $50 per user account per year - Simple and affordable annual fee makes it practical to offer these applications to everyone in the organization.