By Susan J. Campbell

TMCnet Contributing Editor

What would you do if you could back up your Microsoft Exchange e-mail servers with Gmail? According to a recent Business Insider report, a new service from Postini will do just that. The company Google (News - Alert) acquired in 2007 has launched the Google Email Continuity solution. While it isn’t the most glamorous of names, this service sits between the company’s on-premise Exchange server and the public Internet. All e-mails that come into the service are routed simultaneously to Exchange and to Google’s Gmail service.

If Exchange should happen to crash – and we all know this is very possible – users will automatically be switched over to Gmail. At that point, all e-mail and calendar information will be waiting and all synced to Gmail through an Exchange plug-in.Users can also access their Exchange via Gmail from any device as a result of this new service. Yes, it already has been possible with Outlook Web Access, but for those who prefer the Gmail interface, this method is even better. 

A similar continuity service has been offered by Microsoft (News - Alert) in the past and was known as the Exchange Hosted Continuity. This service was folded into the broader Exchange Hosted Archiving service earlier this year. Companies can just implement this solution and have the continuity they need, but there is a price difference. 

The Microsoft offering is $54 per user per year, while the Gmail equivalent if $25 per use per year – or $13 for companies that already use Postini (News - Alert) services for such things as antispam and encryption. For companies who want to go one step further – and still save money – the entire Google Apps suite for business costs only $50 per user per year. 

Aside from the cost advantage – and the fun of using the Gmail interface – when compared to the Microsoft offering, this useful sales tool is something Google can use to get customers to swap out their Exchange servers altogether for Gmail. And, for those companies not yet ready to fully embrace Google’s cloud, they can still check out the Google Email Continuity for a while. Think of it this way – the more Exchange crashes, the more the company will use – and get to like – Gmail.

Susan J. Campbell is a contributing editor for TMCnet and has also written for eastbiz.com. To read more of Susan’s articles, please visit her columnist page.

Edited by Juliana Kenny

blog comments powered by Disqus