As the Cloud computing concept is evolving, IT majors like Google and Microsoft are competing aggressively in this space. As a partner for both the companies, IBEE can see there is lot of improvement needed in terms of technology and analysing customer needs with both the companies products. Here in this article i will try to evaluate the offerings of these products.
Google Apps
Google Apps comes as a packaged communication and collaboration solution with features like Email, Docs, IM, Calendar and Sites. Google Apps offers Standard, Premier, Education and Non-Profit versions with different pricing and features. However Standard and Education versions are Free and Premier version costs $50 per user per year, Non-Profit will get discount based on volumes. Features wise Premier, Education and non-profit versions are almost same and Standard Edition have only 7 GB storage vs 25 GB in Premier edition and Access to postini, SSO and other enterprise features are not available for standard edition.
As not many are opting for paid version, we need to wait and see how this will be a profitable venture for Google. For discounted Google Apps pricing click here
Microsoft BPOS
After seeing a good response for Google Apps in the market and Office share dropping down, Microsoft suddenly jumped into web based software business and reduced their on-premises BPOS prices and launched Microsoft office web apps in 2010. With this kind of immediate release there are lot of bugs with the control panel where the users and apps are managed. Microsoft BPOS is priced on a monthly basis as $10 per user and comes with Exchange Online Standard, Share Point Online Standard, Office Communication Online Standard, Live Meeting Standard.
For discounted Microsoft BPOS click here.
IBEE Solutions is a Microsoft BPOS and Google Apps reseller located in Hyderabad, India.