5 Reasons Google Apps is Still Better than Notes

In response to your feedback and comments

All,

Thank you for your feedback to our last post. We are thrilled that through the use of blogs and twitter, we can engage the community in a nearly real-time conversation. What I find odd, however, is the fact that a leader of another large company can call for the “eradication” of Lotus Notes to his partner community, but it was David Hoff’s “Top 10 Reasons I Left Lotus Notes for Google Apps” that sparked the ire of the Lotus Notes faithful. We clearly hit a nerve here and wanted to take an opportunity to respond to some of the feedback.

First of all, let me say that Cloud Sherpas is made up of several former Lotus Notes Professionals. In my previous role with a large Fortune 100 company, I was responsible for the implementation, support, and day-to-day management of a 30K Lotus Notes and Domino user base. I actually helped that company migrate to the cloud right before I joined Cloud Sherpas. In any case, I too was once very proud of the Lotus brand going back to version 3.0c. However, I write to you now on this side of the divide because I have seen, acknowledged, and experienced what the cloud and Google Apps can provide for each of your organizations.

The time has now come for all of us to be thought leaders for our respective organizations. Are we really so unconditionally committed to maintaining the status quo and defending our on-premise messaging infrastructures? Knowing what you know now, if 10 years ago, you or your organization had the option of either pursuing the cloud or advancing the brand of your on-premise infrastructure, wouldn’t at least some part of you be extremely tempted to forgo your moral obligations and chase innovation?

For many years, the Lotus community has adeptly provided reliable, robust ways to deliver messaging and collaboration to users across multiple platforms. In the early days, Lotus was quick to develop Lotus Notes support for OS/2, which provided a true multitasking platform. With the acquisition from IBM, Lotus began pioneering support for the 64 bit platform on the AS400 and its associated stability, long before the Intel platform even dreamed of addressing memory beyond the 32 bit limit. When it became clear that Linux was ready for the data center, again, IBM and Lotus embraced the platform and released full support for the domino server.

Recently, IBM Lotus has even dared to dip a toe in the SaaS water. In January, IBM announced that Bluehouse is now “LotusLive”. We applaud this endorsement of the cloud model. However, this service still lacks the basic ability to provide browser-supported email (iNotes). At this point, it seems IBM is just attempting to host versions of its on-premise software in IBM data centers. This lack of a multi-tenant architecture and scale is clearly reflected in the pricing and feature set.

Aside from the fact that a browser offering is still not available, businesses cannot even purchase the product unless they commit to 1,000 seats. Furthermore, the purchase price is a massive $162/user (yes, this includes the software license for the client). This is more than 3x the cost of the entire Google Apps Suite, and users are subject to a host of limitations, not the least of which is a 1 GB mail file (versus Google’s 25 GB). We are citing these figures from the LotusLive signup page at https://www.lotuslive.com/pricing/notes.

Regardless of what side you are on, we can all acknowledge that, from time-to-time, disruptive changes occur in the IT industry. These advances leapfrog incremental evolution by approaching the challenge in a fundamentally different way. We see many of these characteristics in Google Apps. By the intensity of the reaction that we’ve generated, we can see that change is difficult. In this light, we want to elaborate on the benefits that our customers have experienced by switching to Google Apps. We have addressed the feedback with an analysis of five key points:

1. Rapidly Changing Technology. There were numerous responses from consultants that Notes/Domino 8.5 is a great product with many wonderful features. Although my experience ended with 8.0, I assume that you tell the truth. However, most Notes/Domino organizations are not on the latest version and probably can’t tell you if or when they are going to upgrade. I’m sure the folks at IBM can tell you exactly how many organizations are fully deployed on version 8.5, but in today’s economy, how many companies can afford to allocate time, money and effort to upgrade on-premise infrastructure instead of using those resources to focus on their core business? In the move to Notes/Domino 8.5, server upgrades are a very small component of the process. To take full advantage of the latest release, desktops, clients, templates and applications must be upgraded too, which can be quite daunting in terms of hardware requirements and time. (One of our enterprise customers with over 15,000 users would need to upgrade 38% of their laptops just to use the 8.5 client.) Whether you spend 20 minutes, 20 hours, or 20 days upgrading your Lotus Notes and Domino infrastructure, should this ever be the chief priority for your business? The truth of the matter is that in today’s economy, using and/or transitioning to the latest and greatest in IT is not an option for organizations focused on sustaining, building, and growing their business.

2. Notes and Domino Applications. Lotus Notes and Domino is a wonderful rapid application platform. Things such as field level security and offline capabilities are merely a few of the many positive features that provide a “Swiss army knife” of tools at a developer’s immediate disposal. If you are driving business-facing and transactional applications that help your organization succeed, by all means, keep it going. However, the best (and most cost-effective) solution to a problem is oftentimes not the most complex or versatile option, but rather, the one that most directly and efficiently meets your needs. To continue the metaphor, a pair of scissors can better solve certain problems for which a fold-out “Swiss army knife” would prove too costly, too convoluted, and too cumbersome.

With such a useful and fast development tool, many organizations find themselves left with a myriad of Lotus Notes applications that, while a good idea in the beginning, lack the careful life cycle approach to application development and data management. Over time, the initial value of the application wanes, and the enterprise is forced to dedicate ongoing resources and money to non-core business needs. For example, traditionally crucial Notes applications often mature into more complex CRM and/or ERP applications.

3. End Users. In today’s world in which messaging has extended to web clients and mobile devices, we believe that Google’s approach to mail is more convenient and appropriate for end users. Over the years, IBM has continued to extend support to a wider range of browsers; however, cross-platform support is a necessity, not a luxury. As the lines of collaboration blur inside and outside the organizations, IT departments have increasing difficulty mandating client software. Yet, with over 100+ million users on GMail, Google has built a platform that is designed from the ground-up to be intuitive, fast and self-supported. Deployment of all users on this single platform provides an unprecedented level of feedback for the evolution and refinement of Apps on a daily basis.

More often than not, many of the advanced features that fat clients provide are not utilized by end users. In comparison, Google has built a client that addresses key end user pain points like mail box size limits, message labeling, and a powerful search functionality, all powered by an almost infinitely scalable, cloud-based infrastructure that requires zero administrative management or maintenance.

4. Innovation. At some point, even Lotus gurus have to wonder, is Lotus Notes and Domino driving innovation, or is it more engrossed in features and functions? With Google, we see many companies take their first step into cloud computing by moving on-premise messaging spam and antivirus filtering to Google Message Security (formerly Postini). On the surface, the case is simple; an overwhelming majority of Internet inbound mail traffic is spam, so why consume precious internal bandwidth receiving these messages if they’re only going to get deleted? If you dig a little deeper, you see first-hand the innovation provided by having an intensely focused, multi-tenant filtering and archiving solution. Whereas on-premise solutions can only “see” what’s happening locally, collect patterns, and download definitions, a cloud-based solution has access to all this information with an enormous sampling of Internet activity in real-time. Google is constantly adding dynamic features and functions to the Google Apps suite. In the last year, Google has added real-time voice and video chat to instant messaging, released Google Video (aka YouTube for your internal organization), and developed full Java support for Google App Engine.

5. Cost. Running a data center is a costly proposition. As employees and customers demand systems that are designed to yield zero downtime, additional resources must be allocated to provide redundancy, failover, and recovery capabilities. The cost of providing IT services can be greatly reduced with an economy of scale. Did you know that Google is actually the world’s fourth-largest server manufacturer? (Not for resale, but for their own use.) Building on such a massive scale proves once again that Google has approached the problem differently. As another example, Google uses a custom-built operating system stack that bootstraps itself at runtime. This allows Google to release and deploy an update across hundreds of thousands of servers in less than 24 hours. The scale of this design is one of many ways that Google’s economies of scale greatly cuts costs for Google, which in turn, results in significantly lower costs for customers. To refer back to the first of these five topics, instead of spending additional funds on IT, a business should reduce costs and overhead associated with building, operating, maintaining, and upgrading IT infrastructures.

Enhancing your messaging and collaborative infrastructures can be the perfect, first step onto the cloud. Google is redefining this space for you each and every day. And for the most part, unless you’re talking to Google, other players in the industry are not going to help you migrate an organization of less than 1000 users. Why would they keep such a good thing from smaller to mid-sized companies? The answer most likely goes back to how much revenue providers (in this case, Lotus Notes) need to generate from software licenses that you purchase for your current on-premise deployment in order to profitably offset their own costs.

From time-to-time, disruptive changes occur in the IT industry. These advances leapfrog incremental evolution by approaching the challenge in a fundamentally different way. We see many of these characteristics in Google Apps. Do you?

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We also invite you to join us on Thursday, Aug 13 at the Google Atlanta office for a free seminar: Leaving Lotus — Making the Switch from Lotus Notes/Domino to Google Apps.

If you can’t make it to Atlanta, we’ll be broadcasting the Q&A portion of the event over a conference line and taking your questions live over twitter. Click here for more info on how you can participate.

Top 10 Reasons I Left Lotus Notes for Google Apps

For the last 10+ years, I’ve spent countless nights and weekends keeping Lotus Notes/Domino running at organizations of all sizes. In the process, I’ve gathered more certifications than can fit on a business card (CLS, CLP, PCLP…), but at the end of the day, ensuring that email is working 24/7 takes too much time and effort. For that reason, I’ve left Lotus for Google Apps with no regrets.

Here’s my Top 10 List of why I made the switch:

1. No more emails with the red “X” replacing the actual image.
2. No more weekends spent upgrading Lotus Notes servers.
3. No more waiting for the AdminP guy/gal to do his/her work.
4. Way too many fixes on Lotus Fix List databases.
5. Killnotes.exe should be more of an attitude than a program.
6. I never made the switch to Java, and neither did Lotus.
7. I never was and never will be a fan of Quincy.
8. A smart upgrade isn’t as smart as a no upgrade.
9. Google’s 25GB inbox opens in less than 5 seconds.
10. Google’s email search function actually works.

Have you already made the switch? Are you thinking about it? Do you have a better Top 10? Share your feedback in the comments section below!

We also invite you to join us on Thursday, Aug 13 at the Google Atlanta office for Leaving Lotus — Making the Switch from Lotus Notes/Domino to Google Apps.

If you can’t make it to Atlanta, no problem! We’ll be broadcasting the Q&A portion of the event over a conference line and taking your questions live over twitter. Click here for more info on how to participate.

Why wait for 2010?

Google Apps and OffiSync deliver Microsoft’s future today

As the arms race between Google and Microsoft escalates, a heated competition between Google Docs and the impending Microsoft Office 2010 has set some high expectations for the product’s release.  The actual competition, however, has essentially consisted of Microsoft’s frantically racing to catch up with a product, Google Docs, that has facilitated an unprecedented degree of real-time collaboration and multi-location accessibility.  In other words, while Microsoft will take another year to catch up, Docs users have already benefited from these features for 2 years now.

Also, let us not assume that Google Docs will remain unchanged until the release of Office 2010.  The most obvious problem with these Docs vs. Office debates is that they pit an unreleased, future version of Office against a version of Docs that is up-and-running today.  Who ends up on top by the actual release is anyone’s guess, but while some columnists and critics list the current deficiencies of Docs, if the past is any indication of the future, Office may have an entirely new list of things to imitate by 2010.

In any case, the showdown will happen when it happens.  While we wait, though, end-users and enterprises are benefiting from the document-sharing paradigm in Google Docs today.  For those of you who have already migrated to Google Apps, but find that for whatever reason, your company needs to use Microsoft Office for certain functions, a sync between Office and Docs seems like the perfect, yet unattainable, solution.  However, this is exactly what we are offering you:

Cloud Sherpas has proudly forged a partnership with OffiSync.  What this means for you Office 2003 or 2007 users is that you can sync your Office files with Google Docs.  Not only are you storing your data on Google’s cloud, but you can also take advantage of the Google Docs sharing paradigm within the Microsoft Office environment today.  This demo has some really cool details:

Like what you see?  Contact us to experience this unique sync between Google Docs and Microsoft Office.

Cloud Sherpas Adds Industry Veteran to Meet Increasing Demand for Google Apps in the Enterprise

Company to Host Seminar Focused on Lotus Migrations to Google Apps

Atlanta, Georgia (PRWEB) July 14, 2009 — Cloud Sherpas, a leading Google Apps™ systems integrator and application developer, is pleased to announce the addition of Jeffrey Miller to its management team. Jeff will lead the professional services practice at Cloud Sherpas, driving successful deployments of Google Apps in enterprise accounts.

“We are delighted that Jeff has joined the Cloud Sherpas team to focus on our Google Apps business,” said Michael Cohn, CEO of Cloud Sherpas. “His unique perspective on the business decisions facing CIO’s today will drive tremendous value for our clients and the company as a whole.”

Jeff brings over 15 years experience managing enterprise knowledge management and information collaboration technologies. Most recently, he successfully led the migration of over 30,000 Lotus Notes/Domino users to the cloud. Jeff led the design, implementation, operations and support of both the legacy on-premise Lotus infrastructure and the new cloud environment.

“I am extremely excited to join the Cloud Sherpas team,” said Miller. “Google is ushering in a new era of enterprise information technology with Google Apps, and Cloud Sherpas is on the forefront of the ecosystem delivering exceptional customer service and a unique set of products that make Google Apps more valuable to enterprise customers.”

One group of IT decision makers in particular is taking a closer look at Google’s cloud computing solution. “It’s no surprise enterprises running Lotus Notes/Domino are looking for alternatives,” says Miller. “The cost savings and IT simplification benefits of Google Apps can’t be ignored.”

In response to market demand, Cloud Sherpas is hosting a seminar on Thursday, August 13, focused on exploring the business and technical advantages of migrating a Lotus Notes/Domino infrastructure to Google Apps. The event will take place at the Google Atlanta office in conjunction with Ferris Research, BinaryTree and Google.

Visit www.cloudsherpas.com/leaving-lotus to register for Leaving Lotus — Making the Switch from Lotus Notes/Domino to Google Apps. And follow @cloudsherpas on twitter for updates on how you can participate in a live Q&A session via twitter with the panelists on the day of the event.

About Cloud Sherpas

Cloud Sherpas (www.cloudsherpas.com) is a cloud computing systems integrator and application developer. As a leading Google Enterprise partner, Cloud Sherpas helps organizations leverage Google Apps and Google App Engine to dramatically reduce IT expenses. The company delivers deployment, change management, support and development services to commercial, enterprise and educational institutions seeking to adopt cloud computing.

Cloud Sherpas is a Google Apps Authorized Reseller and enterprise deployment partner. The company also supports cloud computing solutions from EMC/Decho, TriCipher and other best-in-breed vendors.

Google, Google Apps and Google Apps Authorized Reseller are trademarks of Google Inc. Lotus, Notes and Domino are trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation.

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Cloud Computing on the News Hour with Jim Lehrer

PBS recently aired a special segment on the News Hour with Jim Lehrer on cloud computing. It’s a great segment that highlights the basics of the cloud and why businesses are considering it. Take a look:

Click here to catch the full interview with Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google.

Google Apps Makes Inroads in the SMB Channel

By Alison Diana

By forming a partner program and forging relationships with solution providers, Google is further spurring SMB adoption of Google Apps and other Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) technologies.

Google’s reseller program, unveiled in January, is open to all–from multinational global integrators to small VARs, says Stephen Cho, director of Google Apps channels. SMB VARs, he says, are essential to meeting the company’s business and channel design goals. “The smaller firm is being served by the smaller VAR or IT consultancy. That is where they go for advice and implementation,” notes Cho. “Some of these smaller companies might know about Google Apps and proactively want to migrate to it on their own, but we believe they would do this only under the advice and guidance of a company they trust.”

To help SMB partners successfully sell into, implement, and support their clients’ SaaS efforts, Google’s program includes a Web portal with business and technical information, online discussion groups, sales and technical training, and customer marketing materials. Reseller tools also help VARs set up customers and provision users. Management functions and integration APIs for directory synchronization, migration, and single sign-on are available as well, according to the Mountain View, Calif.-based developer.

FEEDBACK FROM PARTNERS
“Google is a great company to work with,” says Eran Gil, vice president of business development at Atlanta-based Cloud Sherpas, which targets midsize and enterprise clients. Gil’s company has worked with other large organizations, and knows how the channel model works. But Google is different. “They have their own concept of how to run the channel. They provide a lot of touch points into the organization and are open to allowing the channel to engage with [them],” he says.

Google’s willingness to communicate is one of the company’s biggest strengths, says Irfan Khan, chairman of Agosto Inc., a Minneapolis-based MSP and integrator. “One thing Google does well is listen,” he says.

While partners know the program is evolving, they say it needs more work. Solution providers want deal registration, for example, which is not currently offered, says Khan, adding that the company should also expand training and enhance marketing and channel communication tools. “They haven’t, in my opinion, put a lot of energy into the channel,” he says. “But the good news is they’re changing. I would expect, in a year, a lot of those things will be rectified.”

Google confirms that its program is a work in progress. “We’re at the beginning,” Cho says. “For us, it’s really [about] making sure we keep the momentum going-that in a world of constrained resources we continue to deliver the things our partners need to be successful. I’m encouraged by what I see going on around the company. There is not a pretense that we have all the answers. At the same time, we are doing things differently.”

GROWING MARKET FOR SAAS
With a lower cost of entry and clients’ ability to shed energy-hungry, space-hogging server farms, SaaS is quickly becoming an attractive alternative to on-premise applications. Google, with its brand recognition and easy-to-use design, could further spur sales, say partners, especially to smaller firms that can’t afford costly, time-consuming training.

The economy is also encouraging businesses to adopt SaaS. By the end of this year, 76 percent of organizations in the United States will have at least one SaaS implementation, according to a January 2009 IDC report. And about 45 percent of businesses will spend at least 25 percent of their IT budgets on SaaS solutions, says the research firm.

“There’s a lot of pressure on IT budgets. It’s just very clear that you can cut your licensing expenditure with Microsoft by going with Google Apps,” says Khan. “The savings are in hundreds of thousands of dollars. In general, customers that have used SaaS products like Salesforce.com are more open to this conversation.”

Agosto has successfully implemented Google Apps at a number of its clients, including cash-strapped SMB retailers. For its part, Cloud Sherpas also has won business from other hard-hit verticals. “Customers in low-margin or slim-margin businesses-such as manufacturing and commodity services or products–are looking into it more than others, and drive decision making a lot faster. But you can certainly see adoption across the board,” says Michael Cohn, Cloud Sherpas’ CEO.

With heavy hitters such as Google and Microsoft extolling the virtues of SaaS, solution providers have strong allies in their efforts to migrate clients from the old to the new. Developers have equally strong allies in their channel partners who translate the technology’s promise into cold, hard cash for thousands of SMBs.

ALISON DIANA has been writing about the channel for more than 15 years.

This story was originally published in ChannelPro-SMB.

The Redmond Tea Party

What IT Revolutionaries Are Throwing Overboard

As we as Americans prepare to celebrate and commemorate our freedom, let us call to mind that which makes us free. Let us also call to mind that to which we still remain chained, as some of you may feel towards, say, your IT systems.

If you are reading this, chances are you already know about the substantial cost savings cloud computing and Google Apps provides as you spend significantly less on servers, IT management, and exceedingly complex licensing schemas. It turns out, though, that companies like Microsoft and IBM are starting to acknowledge those cost savings (and other cloud computing advantages) as well, and that believe it or not, these legacy companies seem for once to be on the defensive.

Although one could probably think of various reasons why Microsoft execs may be losing sleep, simply put, their greatest fear is most likely this: Microsoft’s cash cow products, at a seemingly unstoppable rate, are becoming eclipsed by the competition. (We’ll save IBM for a later post, just FYI.)

The onslaught from forerunners of the SaaS movement such as Google, as well as from countless start-up companies also hoping to capitalize on the cloud’s frontier, is forcing even the once-unyielding Microsoft to conform and compromise. One of the most inconvenient problems for Microsoft, though, is that in the time it took them to decide that a change was needed, an entire industry had already committed to embodying that change. Thus, many of the “new” features for the Office 2010 Suite are actually going to be emulations of Google Apps. For example, one of the key improvements for Office 2010 is to facilitate more group collaboration by allowing online-user messaging and simultaneous editing of documents. Sound familiar?

In this modern-day revolution, the once-invincible Microsoft is clearly on its heels. Not only can we show you how Google Apps is superior to Microsoft; Microsoft is showing you how Google Apps is superior to Microsoft. In the spirit of Independence Day, as we cherish our family, our friends, our food, and our freedom, we at Cloud Sherpas hope that by this time next year, we will be celebrating together your freedom from high-priced Enterprise Agreements and the hassle associated with on-premise infrastructure.

Have a safe and happy holiday weekend! Happy Independence Day!