Google Apps Battles Office 365 in Cloud Computing Market

Grazed from Midsize Insider. Author: David Tom.

Google has earned recognition in the enterprise industry through its Google Apps software, a series of cloud-based applications that permit collaborative document writing, slide show construction, and text and video messaging. When the program began six years ago, Google anticipated that the program would catch on with small businesses and tech start-ups. However, they had no idea that larger corporations would follow suit.

Competitive Pricing and Online Collaboration

According to an article by The New York Times , the search engine company has recently formed contracts with drug-maker Hoffman-La Roche and the US Interior Department, businesses that each have over 80,000 employees using the product. It is believed that the software’s growth can be attributed to its competitive pricing model as well as the public’s transition to cloud-based technologies. Melissa Webster, an analyst at IDC, stated, "Google is getting traction. It looks like 2013 is going to be the year for content and collaboration in the cloud."…

The main appeal of Google Apps is its price, especially when compared to Microsoft’s competing products.The Google software costs $50 per user, an expense that hasn’t changed since it was originally released. This is made even more impressive by the fact that Google has added numerous features since its debut. By comparison, Microsoft’s Office software is physically installed onto computers and has a retail price of $400 per unit; however, most enterprises can negotiate bulk deals that effectively cut this figure in half…

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