Yesterday, as most people know, was Patch Tuesday, the day when Microsoft releases security updates for their products into the wild. Well, true to recent form, Google took it as an opportunity to take another dig at their rivals in Redmond, calling it “app Tuesday” and highlighting the fact that MSPs don’t have to worry about patching Google Apps — ever.
“Does a certain Tuesday each month feel like the movie Groundhog Day, where you find yourself going through the same firedrill with no end in site[sic]?” asks Kevin Gough, senior product and marketing manager, Google Enterprise in his blog entry.
Like all software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications, Google Apps and the hundred-plus third-party apps in the Google Apps Marketplace that integrate with it require no user intervention for updates. It’s all handled server-side, and even major feature updates can appear without your noticing.
And speaking of Google Apps Marketplace, Gough took the opportunity to plug social layer Kwaga, newsletter manager Mailchip, MyERP.com, enhanced administration layer Promevo, and workflow manager Viewpath — all of them able to be integrated with Google’s platform, and all of them patch-free.
Gough’s blog indicates app Tuesday will be a recurring feature, and interested parties can follow the conversation on Twitter with the #apptuesday hashtag.
Microsoft hasn’t really replied to Google’s PR campaign except to announce major customer wins — and while I think Gough makes some excellent points about the cloud, it really comes down to making the sale.
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Posted In: Software as a Service and Hardware as a Service
Tags: Cloud | cloud platform | Google | Google Apps | Google Apps Marketplace | Google Enterprise Sr. Product & Marketing Manager Kevin Gough | Microsoft
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Take a look at our 
You have IT right! We are a Microsoft Partner and we will continue to support Microsoft Applications, but last week we migrated all of our employees to Google Apps Enterprise Edition from Exchange Server 2003.
In the past year we have migrated many Microsoft Exchange users and non-Microsoft Exchange users to Google Apps Enterprise Edition and every client we have done this for has thanked us with referrals.
I know there are a lot of arguments and concerns about Cloud Computing, and we share some of those concerns, but the ROI is proving to be worth it. Whether our clients need to stay with Microsoft Exchange due to certain capabilities not found yet in Google Apps Enterprise Edition, migrating their email application which requires spam, virus and fishing filtering, and is both hardware and support intensive to properly maintain an email system to a hosted platform has allowed them to focus on their core business instead of their IT.
For our clients and digiGENICS who have chosen the Google Apps Enterprise Edition path, Wednesday has been a more productive day, since we do not have to troubleshoot issues relating to Patch Tuesday.
FYI: I am responsible for most of the Business Solutions [i.e. QuickBooks Pro Accounting and Peachtree Premium Accounting] support due to my former CFO/Controller experience. This past week, I started to evaluate MyERP.com for one of our clients and although this is not an accounting solution for every business, MyERP.com is very impressive and I think as they continue to add features, more businesses will be able to use their solution to manage their company’s accounting and financial management. And the price is…well…Right! It’s FREE for the first two users.
Ed: Thanks for your insights. Please keep us posted as you complete more SaaS migrations. And also, let us know how that MyERP effort goes. I’ve watched them from afar and look forward to your thoughts.
-jp
I have heard so much in favour of Google Apps that I decided to give it a good try a few days ago…. and I must say I was downright disappointed. What was my biggest problem: major compatibility issues between PowerPoint 2010, Excel 2010 and Word 2010 documents that I converted to Google Docs format. Since the world still relies to a large extend on Microsoft file formats, I am wondering how others are experiencing this? I hear very little about compatibility issues and cannot hide the fact that I see the Microsoft Office Web Components as a much better alternative than Google Docs (especially since document type fidelity is preserved between onsite and online documents).
Regards
Mark
Mark: As the old saying goes, your mileage may vary. Within our company, we still use on-premises Microsoft Office. But we spend a good portion of our day using Google Docs to manage shared tasks, lists, priorities, etc. At this point we’re addicted to Google Docs. But we need to give Office Web a try. And, frankly, I’m not uninstalling Office anytime soon. I’ve tried OpenOffice on the Mac and it didn’t meet my expectations. At least not yet.
-jp