Tuesday, June 09, 2009 at 10:45 AM
Over the last year, we've had a razor sharp focus on making it as easy as possible for businesses to deploy Google Apps. In the last few months you've seen some of the results, from offline Gmail to user directory synchronization to full Blackberry® interoperability.Today we're excited remove another key barrier to enterprise adoption of Google Apps with Google Apps Sync for Microsoft Outlook. Google Apps Sync for Microsoft Outlook lets you use Microsoft Outlook seamlessly with Google Apps Premier or Education Editions.
Many business users prefer Gmail's interface and features to products they've used in the past. But sometimes there are people who just love Outlook. For them, we've developed Google Apps Sync for Microsoft Outlook. It enables Outlook users to connect to Google Apps for business email, contacts and calendar. And they can always use Gmail's web interface to access their information when they're not on their work computer.
Key features include:
- Email, calendar, and contacts synchronization. For email, the plug-in uses the offline Gmail protocol, which is much faster than IMAP or other methods.
- Free/Busy lookup and Global Address List functionality, which makes it easy to schedule meetings with your colleagues, regardless of whether they use Outlook's calendar or Google Calendar.
- A simple, two-click data migration tool which allows employees to easily copy existing data from Exchange or Outlook into Google Apps.
Watch it work in this 3 minute video:
Here's what the IT execs at Genentech and Avago have to say about using this capability:
Three key service providers – NuVox, Netfirms and IKANO – have already begun offering Google Apps Sync. NuVox, a leading telecom provider in the Southeast and Midwest, sees "an incredible response to Google Apps from [our] customer base," says CEO Jim Akerhielm. "We’re excited that Google Apps Sync helps our customers stop running Exchange and spend more time focusing on their core business."
Netfirms, which powers 1.2m websites in the U.S. and Canada, is launching Google Apps to their customers in concert with Google Apps Sync. George Mitsopoulos, V.P. of DNA Mail (an IKANO company) says, "Google Apps Sync gives our customers even more options while minimizing our deployment effort. It's 'install, launch and you're ready to go.'"
Netfirms, which powers 1.2m websites in the U.S. and Canada, is launching Google Apps to their customers in concert with Google Apps Sync. George Mitsopoulos, V.P. of DNA Mail (an IKANO company) says, "Google Apps Sync gives our customers even more options while minimizing our deployment effort. It's 'install, launch and you're ready to go.'"
Posted by Eric Orth, Software Engineer, Google Apps team
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49 comments:
This looks great! One technical question: what protocol is being spoken between Outlook and Google Apps? Is it Google Data or Exchange DAV?
Thanks,
Charlie
ABSOLUTELY AMAZING!
Ohhh... Why cant my Family (Free) Google Apps cant have Google Sync plugin for Outlook? We love Google Apps and have been working perfectly ;) but its a family account, cant waste money in Premier. "High-Tech" Family that loves emails and lots of apps but cant have a nice Outlook Sync.
How did Genentech & Avago get around compliance issues requiring forced deletion of emails older than X days?
That's the only remaining objection to gmail adoption at my company.
What does this cost to join? John. I have MS 2007 with the full Office Suite.
It seems really convenient. You guys keep coming up with useful stuff. Just a couple of things on my mind though. What is the measured performance difference/benefits between using Apps Sync and just IMAP or POP on Apps over Outlook? Also wondering how this stores data locally (primarily because of Outlook's data file limitations).
Hi,
This sounds very exciting, however, I have a question: does then the Google Apps account appear in Outlook as an Exchange account?
In other words, if I install this plugin, will I be able to use my old Exchange account as well as the Google Apps Premier account side by side?
Thanks!
Hi,
I'm already using Google Apps Prem with Microsoft Outlook via POP3 for the email and Google Calendar Sync, which is a bit of a fudge as you can't share calendars in Outlook. Will this install straight over that, or do I need to do anything more complicated?
I'd like to use this, but I don't want to pay for it :(
I would like to use this, but I don't want to pay for it :(
When we will have a version sync for OS X users?
Thanks!
Looks great, but how is conference room (resource) scheduling handled without an Exchange server?
When will this be available for all editions of Google Apps and for personal Gmail accounts?
Excellent choice. I'm very interested.
How about a plugin for Word, so that Word uses a google document as backend-file? This would make it possible for users to keep using MS Word.. Or is this technically unfeasible?
Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you! You have made my life as an IT person 100 times better.
Why was standard accounts left out of the equation?
So, now that Apple has announced that Mail (OSX) will support Microsoft Exchange interface, can we assume that once Snow Leopard goes live, Mail will be able to connect seamlessly to Google Apps?
Question: What about conference room reservations and and calendar functionality?
Also, is there any though into providing a plugin for Lotus Notes Mail?
TIA
Cliff
Wow! This is great. But what about if a user is already using outlook via IMAP with Google Apps. How is the syncing then handled with contacts that have been created in Outlook and not in Gmail?!
What if someone now has more than ONE email account in their Outlook? Does this synch all of them (say, three) or will it only work with one & the others need to remain POP or IMAP
What about tasks? That is critical for many of us... Google now has tasks...
What about tasks? Google now has tasks... we need to sync them...
Still no multi-calendar sync support based on the video.
WOW!! This is just in the nick of time...
Does anyone know if it works with the outlook add on, business contact manager?
WOW this is great!!
Does anyone know if it will work with business contact manager that attaches to outlook?
need windows mobile support!
Would appreciate a lot the support of standard GMail accounts ( Calendar and Contacts work but not emails as of now )
Thanks !!
Would love to migrate my Google imap on prof Apps account to Apps Sync, but installation creates new profile. Also need task sync at least otherwise need other tools for GTD. Memos part of GTD as well, so miss that, too. You're close and probably serving a large part of your market . . . but some of us will keep the Exchange server for now . . . at least until your implementation lets us run full fledged GTD inside Outlook or on the road through the browser with netbook. Regards./Steve
if you add E-mail sync to Google Mobile Sync for Windows Mobile as an addition, it will be perfect eco system!
This is a step in the right direction though need to administratively support the following before K-12 school districts can realistically adopt:
1. Public Folders
2. Email aging policy which deletes email after X days
3. Managed folders which have varying retention/aging periods
4. What about global contact sharing?
Very cool. The one catch for our faculty and staff is going to be the inability to open shared calendars for scheduling appointments.
IT WORKS GREAT!
Main problem I have seen so far is that can't see colleagues availability when trying to schedule a meeting. I could see their availability (free/busy, no details) when using Google Calendar. Any idea how this can be fixed or worked-around?
That is really interesting... would it mean then that since gmail will act as an exchange account, that it will be possible to use windows mobile outlook using activesync? if so then i'm in straight away!
Please make something like this available for Mac OS X, or at least Entourage. I use Google Apps with Mail but I hate how sloppy the IMAP implementation is and how there are all these unnecessary folders all over the place.
Please make this available for the standard accounts.
It already workds for OSX, Windows Mobile, iPhone and everything else with Exchange support so it's almost possible to store everything on Google and access it from anywhere.
Can we coedit a lecture or .ppt file?
Can you provide a basic CLOCK showing
Day of Week, Day of Month, Time of Day and also at ready access the AddressBook without requiring entry into Mail? Thanks
Gaeapanda
uninstall and reinstall of google app sync results in the app looking for the profile each time outlook is started. You can say this is default but next time it starts it again looks for a profile. This is a minor bug as no information is lost but it is annoying
Nice job, but why the hell use Outlook fro email when Gmai is SO much better !
I just keep outlook as a sync platform for Contacts and Calendar, but as soon as the sync with S60 is operational, I'll be very happy to have everything on the cloud.
And Gmail conversation handling is 10000 times better than Outlook's poor outdated bhaviour.
People, open your eyes and EVOLVE !
So much for the cloud when you have to run the GAL generator and have it on a share accessible to all computers. Now remote users need a VPN client to use the GAL. Why can't the outlook client generate its own GAL file periodically or sync it with google apps much better? Totally agree with the previous poster about activesync email sync too. Remote wipe for mobile clients would be great too and pretty much eliminate the need for us to have a BES server.
I would love to take advantage of this, but I only have the standard edition.
That sounds great, but for companies that can not immediately migrate to google apps to replace exchange would it be possible for user prefering gmail as interface to access the enterprise exchange server using activsync ?
Sounds great, but for companies that can not migrate immediately to google apps could it be possible for user prefering the gmail interface to access the enterprise exchange server with activesync ?
PST import has been a nightmare. It doesn't work correctly. New emails coming in, or that are in Gmail work great. We are missing ALOT of emails, my clients are complaining. Not a viable alternative yet to hosted exchange if you are moving from a pre existing environment.
I'm hoping one of my clients will adopt this. We are currently using Kolab on the backend. Kolab has been great, but the Outlook clients need a connector. Toltec is the connector we are using but when Outlook's pst becomes corrupted Toltec breaks. Everyone who uses Outlook knows how easily the pst's become corrupt. I'm hoping that Google's Outlook sync will alleviate some of the frustration in dealing with HUGE mailboxes. Eventually the users should move off of Outlook, which will be a happy day for me. Outlook is so outdated, but users still cling to the sinking ship's applications like they are the only way to survive.
WHAT ABOUT TASKS?
No task sync?
Not bad but...
- the way it sets up and handles the profile and PST is a bit weird... have lots of extra profiles autogenerated for some reason...
- reminders dont' work right. repeated popups and difficult to remove them.
- NEED TASK SYNC!
- The Google apps task module is WAY too rudimentary. Where's priority? Due Date? table view?
- Contacts don't seem to sync well at all. I have over 1000 outlook contacts, google shows 58. I don't want to autocreate a google contact for every email address I put in either.
Verdict... not bad as a alpha/beta but nowhere near to an exchange replacement. Still missing a lot of BASIC functionality.
I share the same views. Liked your blog very much.
Task Sync????
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