News & Updates

7/1/2009 by Tela Andrews. Source: Exchange3g.com

Google is nipping at Microsoft's heels again in another area where the Redmond-based company has traditionally been the dominant player. Google's new App Sync service is targeted at business users who use Microsoft Outlook for their desktop client, but use Google to centrally store their contacts, calendars and email.

At Exchange3G we are always in favor of additional options in the business email playing field. Yahoo acquired Zimbra, which is viable alternative to MS Exchange (and one we are currently working to offer our clients). However, there are a few key difference's between Google's new service and the offerings from Microsoft and Yahoo:

1. Both Yahoo and Microsoft license their software for third parties, such as our humble company, to provide. Your data sits on our servers and Yahoo and Microsoft have no access to it. With Google App Sync your valuable business data (customer lists?) sits on Google's servers. This is an important distinction.

2. Push Email is not part of the current offering. Most users of an Exchange hosting service value the nearly-instant receipt of their email. It is unclear at this time how Google will provide such a feature, if at all.

App Sync is available to organizations that use the Google Apps Premier version of the hosted productivity suite. This upgrade costs $50 a year.

Again, we are hopeful that the Google offering will become a competitive product with enough business reason for it to make sense for certain companies. We fully expect the hosted productivity market to become more specialized as Microsoft, Yahoo and Google go head-to-head. As long as they remember they are here to serve their customers, this competition can only lead to better products and features

Read more from other sources on Google App Sync from these sources: internetnews.com informationweek.com

7/11/2008 by Tela Andrews. Source: Exchange3g.com

Apple released its new iPhone 3g, or iPhone 2.0, on Thursday July  10th to a lot of hype from targeted at consumers. News coverage ranged from the long lines at Apple Store locations to issues that early adopters had with activating their new iphone3g. However, the one story that has slipped under the radar is the benefits of this great smartphone for small businesses, entrepreneurs, and even for active families on the go.

The big story should have the fact that the new iphone supports Microsoft Activesync, which allows the iPhone to seamlessly interact with the Microsoft Exchange Server. Exchange is the premier email sharing and calendar sharing collaborative software. The Blackberry has enabled this for a long time, but it requires an extra set of software (with extra costs for the server, and the need for trained IT people to manage this). The iPhone doesn’t need this extra set of software.

For a small business this can really help with productivity. You can quickly coordinate meetings by checking your staff’s schedule and then sending meeting requests. Your contacts (or you staff’s, if you are a small business owner), are backed up on the server, as are their emails.  If a phone or computer gets lost, all of the information is saved on the server and can be active on a replacement device in just a few minutes.

Now, the story about the benefits for small businesses has gotten a little coverage. What nobody has been talking about are the benefits for active families. If you have two or three teenagers and are trying to keep track of school events, sports and their social life, what is the answer? If each teen has an iPhone, you can check their schedule in an instant, and they can notify you if soccer practice will be getting out an hour late, for example. The iPhone is perfect the perfect smartphone for teens, and for their parents.

The iPhone2 is also completely compatible across platforms: It works with Microsoft Outlook on the PC, or with Microsoft Entourage (part of the Microsoft Office package for Macs). If you update your calendar, or send a message from your desktop email program, your new iphone will automatically be updated.

So, there has to be a catch, right? The catch is that it is complicated and expensive to setup Microsoft Exchange. You need a dedicated server in a professional data center, not to mention paying for the required licensing or addressing security issues. Exchange really needs to be run by trained professionals.

The good news is that services such as Exchange3G have been created that specialize in providing hosted iPhone Exchange Server services on a subscription basis. This is the simplest, easiest and most cost-effective way for small companies or busy families to get the full benefit of their new iphones.