Google Apps and Hosted Exchange

edanto

I'm comparing these systems - and with Apps Premier, it seems like the issues of uploading existing emails is addressed as well as tight integration with Outlook (including recording in the Online version all actions made in Outlook - just in case some people can't change over, or want to keep using the same task/contacts records, as well as offline email).

Question issues - anyone know how these issues are resolved/shared/controlled in Google Apps:

Address books - and internal organisation mailing lists

Transferring control of mailboxes when staff turnover (without having to log out and back into a different google account!)

In terms of setup config, they look like they will both take a similar amount of time, but obviously google will be far superior in terms of ongoing maintenance and backup etc

If it became necesarry (google going bust), is there a process for getting email back out of the google system.

Also, my understanding of the T&Cs with google is that the owner of the domain owns all the information, is this accurate?

What about bots crawling on our data and mails - are there any potential issues there?

edanto

So... a good few people have looked at this thread, but no-one has replied. Is it in the wrong place? Could anyone suggest a more appropriate forum somewhere else on the web please, one that would have more of these sysadmin type of questions?

thx

darraghrogan

I have it set up for a friend's business, a single email address domain, using the standard verison (up to 100 email accounts) so my feedback mightn't be as relevant as you're looking for...


anyway - mailing lists can be defined by the adminitrator - listname@yourdomain.ie - mail can be sent to both internal addresses & external addresses...

with regards to domain & account management - you are an administrator, so at the top right of your hosted gmail page - there is a link to "Manage this Domain" which brings you to the domain management page - so correct - no loggin out and logging back in as an administrator

tp get your email FROM google - you could download all messages for each user into a local email client using IMAP - if push came to shove...It would be very manageable because if users had setup "Labels" in the web interface - they would be Folders in the IMAP view...

with regards to your last 2 questions - I don't know the answers...but from reading about gmail when it launched - the emails are read when you view them in the web interface for certain keywords to advertise...

Overall - I am very impressed with the google apps - especially as one can download information from existing POP/IMAP accounts into it - and take advantage of a couple of millions peoples worth of Spam filtering feedback - and the fact that virus scanning is done pre-download...


Darragh

edanto

Cheers for that Darragh, glad to know it's working well in your hands.

When I said "Transferring control of mailboxes when staff turnover (without having to log out and back into a different google account!)" above, what I meant was that time when someone new replaces an old staffer and they will need to have access to the old emails.

Do you know is it possible to merge mailboxes, or to give one user visibility of another ex-users emails without the new user having to log in and out? My understanding of Exchange is that it's pretty easy to do that. This isn't a deal breaker, just an aspect that I want to have a plan for.

I was interested to find out last week that TCD have adopted G Apps as their new mail system.

darraghrogan

oh - in that case - the new user looking for access to the old users mailbox could connect to the old mailbox by setting their account to dload a copy into their mailbox...it updates then every hour afterwards....

edanto

Well that sounds good!

When you were doing the changeover did you have legacy mail to upload to the system?

I'm just not sure how I will go about the logistics of the changeover, I have about 20 pst files to go up with at least one person out of the country at all times! (I've contacted LimitNone etc, but with no reply)

darraghrogan

Yes - same as you - a .pst file...

What I did was enable IMAP access to the google account so that I could add the account in outlook. Then, it was simply a case of drag & drop...

I found that when you drag a mail from the Local folder to the Google folder, when it is copied over, it deletes the copy in the Local folder...which is handy - it means that when all the mail is copied from your local store to the google store - your local store should be empty... This is an important consideration when copying a large quantity of mail - you can check where you are with the progress...

It should be noted that each mailbox - you wouldn't want to copy more than say 1 or 2megabytes at a time on a 2m/256k ADSL connection - otherwise one does experience time-outs...

how are you handling your email at the moment? you could do a transition period...if you had POP3 access to your existing email accounts - you could setup the google accounts to download a copy of peoples incoming mail for about a week or so - then initate the changeover to google, and start copying mail - most people only care about recent email anyway...

D