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Google Apps Offers Migration for Microsoft Exchange

Google Apps is offering migration for Microsoft Exchange. The service is free with Google Apps Premiere or Google Apps Education.

Last July, Google Apps began offering migration from IBM’s Lotus Notes. Most enterprises are standardized on either Microsoft Exchange or Lotus Notes, which means that Google now pretty much can migrate any organization to the cloud. Google also offers connection to Blackberry Enterprise Server.Google Apps is providing migration for Microsoft Exchange 2003 and 2007.

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Microsoft has very limited capability to offer a cloud-based email environment. Most of the offerings it provides are locally installed, single-hosting services. Concerns will wane about cloud security. The ability to offer a cloud-based email environment for easy access will be the norm, not the exception. But even though Google has a jump, Microsoft will have its own offering. In the meantime, Google has an opportunity to make another leap into the enterprise.

This does represent a tipping point for many companies shedding IT assets. The question about email often comes up when companies consider moving to the cloud. It’s an important part of the migration. In recent weeks, we have seen how email is becoming a foundation for the evolution of a web oriented, social enterprise. Google Apps Marketplace offers the capability to offer third party applications that integrate with Google Apps. Email is a critical part of the equation in this Google ecosystem. It provides a backbone for companies to connect its employees with Google Apps and the associated third-parties.

The process to migrate looks relatively simple. Through Google Apps, a customer enters their Microsoft Exchange user name and what it calls “two-legged OAuth,” consisting of a consumer user key and a consumer “secret”. They then upload a .CSV file consisting of the email adresses, calendar and contact information. It is optional what to migrate. For example, an IT administrator may upload email addresses and contact data but not the calendar. Email service does not get interrupted during the migration.

This is a compelling offering for companies moving to the cloud. But it’s only part of the equation. Google still needs to prove it is robust enough for the enterprise to migrate to Google Apps. In the meantime, Microsoft needs to act fast and provide a cloud offering that at least gives its own community the option to move Microsoft Exchange to the cloud.

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IT pros: Macs cost less to manage than PCs

Filed under: Enterprise, Surveys and Polls

The Enterprise Desktop Alliance (an association of several Mac-centric IT vendors) recently surveyed 260 IT administrators in the US to find out which computing environment is cheaper to manage: PCs or Macs. It turns out Macs cost less to manage than PCs for 65% of the IT admins surveyed. 19% of survey respondents said the two platforms cost the same to manage, while 16% said PCs cost less to manage than Macs.

According to the survey, Macs were cheaper to troubleshoot and required fewer help desk calls; system configuration, user training, and servers/networks/printing were all cheaper for a Mac environment than a PC environment. Software licensing fees turned out to be nearly identical for both platforms.

The survey doesn’t factor in the costs of the Macs themselves; Macs do present a large up-front investment, especially compared to the budget-priced Dells you usually see populating most office cubicles. However, half of the survey respondents noted they switched to a Mac platform because of a lower total cost of ownership.

The up-front cost is still a turn-off to many IT admins, though, some of whom clearly haven’t even bothered shopping around for a Mac because of the perceived expense: “You can buy a PC for $400, while the cheapest Mac is over a thousand,” one admin noted. Apparently someone’s never heard of the Mac mini, which ranges from $599 for the cheapest model up to $999 for the server-class Mini. Even the cheapest Mac mini would be a more than capable replacement for a $400 Dell or HP computer.

After having worked in a PC-only office environment, I’m not surprised at all that Macs turn out to be cheaper to manage than PCs. The Dell workstations we used at my last job in the US crapped out on us all the time, and software issues cost us hours of lost productivity every week. Between Windows XP, Office 2000, IE 6, and Lotus Notes, our IT admins were kept very busy, especially since almost none of the rank-and-file office workers had the confidence to troubleshoot even the most basic Windows errors themselves. This was at a very large media corporation, too, one that easily could have afforded better hardware and software if they hadn’t been so entrenched in the “Macs are too expensive” mindset.

Apple doesn’t tend to go out of its way to target Macs to the enterprise, preferring instead to focus on everyday consumers. Even so, it looks like IT admins, frustrated with the support issues and high maintenance costs of PCs, are at least starting to consider the Mac as a viable alternate platform.

[h/t Infoworld]

TUAWIT pros: Macs cost less to manage than PCs originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 15 Mar 2010 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Lotus outs wild Evora 414E Hybrid plug-in concept car

Concept cars are like unicorns — they’re so prevalent and vaporous, they’re hardly worth remarking upon. Every so often, though, one pops out into the ether that’s really worth a second look. Lotus’ Evora 414E Hybrid concept certainly fits into that category.This plug-in car boasts (or would boast, should it come into existence), 1.2 liter, three-cylinder engine, independent electric motors for the rear wheels, with a range of about 300 miles. The glass engine cover pictured above, however, is just one of the features we find ourselves double-taking here. The Evora 414E would also pack some ‘vroom vroom’ noises by way of its audio system to take care of the ever-pressing danger of silent auto engines. The engine can operate on alcohol-based fuels or regular old gasoline, and the battery-only range is in the neighborhood of 35 miles. The Lotus Evora 414E hybrid will be unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show.

Lotus outs wild Evora 414E Hybrid plug-in concept car originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 02 Mar 2010 00:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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IBM Gives Students A Cloud Filled With Its Tech – Now That’s Smart

We often hear how cloud computing makes it more affordable for customers to use services that in the past would have been packaged as software and required buying, installing and maintaining on any number of individual machines.

But we often forget how it is also much cheaper for the vendor to produce and distribute services through the cloud. Cloud vendors do not need to test software on any number of operating systems. Version control is a nagging task. it’s unnecessary when the service is cloud-based. The idea of a software disc seems almost antiquated.

IBM seems to get this whole concept pretty well. The company has realized that it can use a cloud computing infrastructure to market its web-based services. Their target right now are college students and professors who are being offered the use of IBM software and databases through a cloud infrastructure IBM calls the “Academic Skills Cloud.”

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Programs now available to college students and professors include IBM Rational, WebSphere, and Informix. Services to be added to the cloud over time will include Cognos, Lotus and Tivoli.

This is a smart move by IBM. It shows how deeply ingrained cloud computing has become at Big Blue. It leverages the power of the cloud to offer IBM technology at minimal cost. Plus, it reaches students who will go on to associate IBM with cloud computing as they begin their professional careers.

The Academic Skills Cloud provides students with access to leading cloud computing technology and new methods for developing applications. Courses and work material can be accessed anywhere the student is located.

Professors can teach practices that students will see in the workforce once they graduate. Machines do not need to be continually updated with new software. It’s all available online.

Students who learn about cloud computing today stand a far better chance of adapting to a world where working with online services will be the way business is conducted. IBM is making guarantees that they will be top of mind for students once they move on to the professional world.

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Tesla Roadster to bid adieu in 2011, successor coming in 2013

Much like the replicants of Philip K Dick’s fertile imagination, it seems like Tesla’s Roadster will live a famous, but short life. In its pre-IPO filings to the SEC, the company has cited “tooling changes at a supplier” as the reason it will stop selling its current gen Roadster and Roadster Sport EVs after 2011. Given that all Roadsters are built at the Lotus factory in England, this probably suggests new Elise or Exige models are on the way and the manufacturing facilities are being updated accordingly. It also means Tesla will be left without any product to sell until the planned 2012 launch of the Model S sedan, while its next generation of two-door sporty supercars won’t be arriving until 2013. Sigh.

Tesla Roadster to bid adieu in 2011, successor coming in 2013 originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 30 Jan 2010 06:35:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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LotusLive Scores Huge Win at Panasonic over Microsoft Exchange

LotusLive has scored a big win over Microsoft Exchange in perhaps the most significant deal to date for a SaaS provider. The IBM deal with Panasonic means that 300,000 people at the electronics company will drop Exchange for the LotusLive, web-based collaboration service.

We would normally not cover customer wins, but the LotusLive deal with Panasonic is so large it signifies how lucrative this market could be for cloud service providers.

We expect these deals to pop up everywhere as more companies see the benefits of shedding IT assets for cloud-based services. In turn this will change how companies negotiate. With more competition and publicized wins, managers will look beyond the desktop for the best deal possible they can find from a cloud services provider.

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Panasonic will use LotusLive for its calendar; email; web conferencing; messaging; file sharing; project management and contact management as well.

LotusLive will also replace Lotus Notes and other collaboration tools.

The LotusLive tiered pricing structure looks similar to what we see with many SaaS providers. According to eWeek, the cost for LotusLive starts at $3 per user, per month. As the client uses more services, the price per user increases.

The win also shows that Google Apps is not as dominant as it sometimes appears. Google Apps has not scored a win on this scale.

Still, Google Apps has had the most success as a provider of online collaboration service. It recently closed deals with several large enterprise customers, including the city of Los Angeles.

All of these wins show that enterprise customers will move faster to the cloud than many expected. In the coming months, we expect Google and IBM will intensify its campaigns against Microsoft. IBM may also have an advantage against Google as the LotusLive pricing structure makes it easy for customers to make an investment. Google offers its services for free and $50 for a premiere account.

It may seem like Microsoft is the one most vulnerable. But we don’t think so. Its cloud-based platform, Azure, may be the best fit of all for many enterprise customers. Further, its deal with Hewlett-Packard means it now has a powerful package it can sell, combining HP servers with Microsoft software.

This is already proving to be quite a year for cloud computing. And just think, we’re only halfway through the month of January.

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LG goes nouveau nostalgic with first US Mobile DTV devices

LG just announced its first commercial products for the fledgling US Mobile DTV standard approved in October. First up is what appears to be a DTV-ified LG Lotus clamshell — a phone first introduced in 2008 but now capable of extracting digital TV from the aether with an assist from that telescoping antenna. Also set for a CES launch is that DP570MH portable DVD player that lets viewers watch up to 4-hours of ATSC-approved Mobile DTV broadcasts before heading back for a charge. LG’s also promising more ATSC Mobile DTV devices from Dell (laptops), Kenwood, and others including in-car receivers all using LG’s LG2160A ATSC-M/H tuner chip. Still, mobile antennas and DVD players… how can something so new feel so retro?

LG goes nouveau nostalgic with first US Mobile DTV devices originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 29 Dec 2009 02:19:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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$16 million settlement over Comcast’s P2P throttling nets the affected $16

More than two years after information about Comcast’s data delaying techniques came to light, a class action lawsuit over the issue has come to a close with a settlement of $16 million and no statement of wrongdoing from the cable giant. That means Comcast continues to tout its newer bandwidth management protocols and those of you that used Ares, BitTorrent, eDonkey, FastTrack or Gnutella betwen April ‘06 and December ‘08 and/or Lotus Notes on the service anytime in the summer of 2007 can head over to the settlement website to either opt out of the class action or receive a $16 check. So is that enough cash to make up for the time wasted waiting for Naruto fansubs, Gutsy Gibbon images and the like to finish downloading?

$16 million settlement over Comcast’s P2P throttling nets the affected $16 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 25 Dec 2009 21:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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