Everything seems great right now, it’s very low cost, and so on. But I think in the future they will start charging for their ‘new features’ and increased space. Since at that point, alot of companies will have switched, and will not even think twice about going back and having to start from scratch again with Hardware and licensing IMO. It may still be cheaper, but at that point, who’s the next low cost alternative to gmail apps?

Anon

I would like to point out that Google App Sync is by no means a new and novel offering. An inexpensive “Exchange Alternative” which allows companies to continue using their beloved Outlook has long been an enticing proposition, especially for SMBs, for whom the costs of Exchange are simply too high.

To provide for this need, we at HyperOffice created a plugin for Outlook called HyperShare as far back as in early 2006 as a free inclusion to the HyperOffice online collaboration suite. Like Google’s new tool, HyperShare acts as a backend for Outlook, and also synchs between Outlook and the HyperOffice’s online collaboration suite, allowing users access to collaboration features through the familiar Outlook client. HyperShare brings much functionality which isn’t present in the Google App Sync tool even now.

1) Google Sync doesn’t include synching for tasks, nor will it in the foreseeable future, as its online client does not contain a task management system. HyperShare in contrast, also allows task synching, as their online client includes task management. This is in addition to HyperOffice allowing synching for mail, contacts and calendars like Google.

2) The user experience of Google Apps is drastically different from the Outlook experience. This will cause problems for users familiar with Outlook, and looking to migrate to Google Apps as an alternative to Exchange. HyperOffice’s online client on the other hand, has the familiar left navigation which lets users easily navigate between individual and group folders within mail, contacts, calendars and tasks.

3) The components of Google Apps are more designed to work for an individual, rather than in group situations. For example, there is no “shared contacts” or “group contacts” area in Gmail through which you can share and manage contact information as groups. HyperOffice, on the other hand, has been designed as a group tool, and mirrors the functionality of Outlook, which has been designed as an individual as well as group tool.