Admins rethink move to Google Apps

As this IDG News story points out pretty starkly, the recent outages experienced by both free and paying customers of Google Apps have forced many administrators--who were originally big cheerleaders for the cloud-based services--to rethink their strategy. Just as Google was on the cusp of becoming an enterprise alternative, it dropped the ball, and that rightly has them worried. The biggest problem is that when problems hit, Gmail and Google Apps users have no other option but to sit tight and wait.

One of the main reasons administrators make the move to Google Apps, beside the mobility and collaboration features of the tools, is the fact that they can offload the management and administration of the suite to the cloud. But when there's a failure, they have no recourse. As John Proffitt, IT services director at APTI says:

"For me as the Google Apps administrator, the disruption was pretty damn irritating. Aside from getting kicked out of e-mail I need to do my own job, it also forced me to completely refocus on figuring out what's happening with Gmail and Google Apps."

And that's not what he signed on for. Why are Google Apps and other cloud-based services any different from other IT outsourcing deals? Shouldn't there be a contractual clause promising no more than a small percentage of downtime, and recourse--and recompense for paying customers--if that small percentage is exceeded? If Google truly is looking to be an enterprise player, it needs to provide the same level of functionailty--and service--as every other IT vendor, cloud or no cloud.

• Outsourcing
• Wireless / Mobile
• cloud computing
• contract
• Google Apps
• outage
• recourse