Google Apps, once a leader, falls behind cloud app rivals

Grazed from ComputerWorld. Author: Juan Carlos Perez.

When Google Apps arrived in 2006, it stood on the cutting edge of web-hosted email and collaboration suites for businesses, a bold pioneer clearing a path in the new, wild frontier of enterprise cloud computing. Seven years later, complacency has diluted that innovative spirit, and Google Apps now trails competing suites from IBM, Cisco and Microsoft in areas like enterprise social networking (ESN) and unified communications (UC).

Although Google improves Apps continually, the suite’s main draw remains its Gmail component, as has been the case from the beginning. But, is cloud email still enough to attract prospective customers and retain existing ones? Is Google leaving Apps vulnerable to rivals by taking its time boosting its ESN and UC capabilities?…

One company eyes rival Office 365
At healthcare company Schumacher Group, Google Apps is at risk of losing its place to Microsoft’s Office 365. The Lafayette, La. company uses Apps to provide email to about 3,000 independent contractor doctors and Microsoft Exchange on premises for its full-time employees…

Read more from the source @ http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9243625/Google_Apps_once_a_leader_falls_behind_cloud_app_rivals