MSPmentor

A little bit of hometown news for MSPmentor today as Google announces that 697 K-12 public school districts in New York State will be going to their Google Apps cloud productivity suite. That’s over 3.1 million students and hundreds of thousands of teachers all potentially going to Google Apps. Here’s the scoop.

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Google tends to favor announcing major Google Apps customer wins as they’re  confirmed. Not Microsoft, no. Microsoft likes to announce a lengthy list of BPOS and Live@edu cloud customer wins all at the same time, and yesterday saw Microsoft add companies like Sunoco Inc. and DuPont and schools like San Francisco State University to the list of SaaS victories. Here’s the story.

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A post over at the Google Enterprise Blog highlights the new features that have been made available to users of the ever-more-popular Google Apps cloud productivity suite over the past few weeks. Headlining the list is the long-awaited (by MSPmentor, at any rate) revision history for Google Docs. Here’s the scoop.

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Microsoft apparently has scored a major coup in the cloud market. The software giant says as many as 33,000 State of Minnesota employees will be going over to their BPOS productivity and collaboration suite. Here’s the straight dope.

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In June 2010, SysAid, an Israeli-based company that specializes in customer-support and help desk solutions, offered an iPhone application called SysAid IT Mobile. It’s designed to manage all help desk services on the go. Now SysAid has gone Android. Here’s the scoop…

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A lot of enterprises go to cloud services for the cost savings or the flexibility. But the Google Enterprise Blog has the story of how Diversey, a hygiene solutions vendor, went to the Google Apps suite for its energy savings potential – and how they won an award for doing so. Here’s the scoop.

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Between Farmville, Mafia Wars, and a million other applications, it’s easy to see how Facebook has quickly become one of the leading productivity stealers in the enterprise. But how do you curb social networking without looking like a heel to your users? I raise the issue because of a recent conversation I had with an IT manager, who is fighting back against Facebook in his own organization.

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You may recall that Google ceased development of their Wave e-mail/collaboration/instant messaging platform back in August 2010. But it’s rising again, Google now reports, in the form of the “Wave in a Box” project, putting the open source server and web client code already completed into a single application. Here’s the scoop.

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It’s not exactly an enterprise feature, but it’s so useful you might love it anyway. Google has launched the beta of Priority Inbox for Gmail, giving users the option of using a trainable filter that puts the messages that are most important to you at the top of your e-mail morass. Here’s some insight.

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At the moment, it’s only for consumers, but Google has announced that you can now make phone calls directly from the Gmail web interface. Here’s the lowdown on the service, and how it may eventually impact managed services providers.

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Google’s boasting that they’ve launched over 50 new features to their trademark Google Apps SaaS productivity suite in the first half of 2010 alone. And to keep that momentum going, they’ve rolled out new features for Google Docs and Google Sites. Here’s the scoop.

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A new Forrester Research report indicates that Microsoft, Google, Cisco, and IBM — which is to say, the major SaaS email players — have more-or-less reached price parity for cloud messaging at about $5 per user per month, confirming that the cloud is axiomatically cheaper than on-premise for most MSPs and the enterprises they serve. Here’s the scoop.

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With all the talk of how the cloud can help even the largest enterprises affordably meet IT needs, it’s easy to forget how useful SaaS can be for even the smallest businesses. In a blog post, Google Apps highlights that aspect with the story of how Oregon-based ice cream company Luna & Larry’s Coconut Bliss uses their cloud collaboration suite. Here’s the scoop — so to speak.

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Google quietly launched an update for their Microsoft Exchange migration tool. The feature list may look anemic, but a few new Google Apps Migration for Microsoft Exchange features can go a long way. Here are some details.

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Novell Pulse, an enterprise social media platform, is a close cousin of Google Wave, which Google killed off about a week ago. So will Novell continue the drumbeat for Pulse? In an official blog post, Novell says absolutely yes — despite the failure of Google Wave to attract a user base. Here’s the scoop.

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The 2010 Google I/O developer conference may have passed back in May, but Google just posted a recap of the event’s “Making Freemium work – converting free users to paying customers” panel discussion. An impressive lineup of venture capitalists sat down and explained how to make millions by giving services away. Here’s some takeaways for MSPs.

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Google has announced that it’s continuing its SaaS momentum in the education space by way of a deal with the Maryland Education Enterprise Consortium (MEEC). The deal potentially puts the Google Apps productivity suite into every public K-12 district, every library, and every college both public and private in the state of Maryland. Here’s the scoop.

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Google Wave was one of the technologies for MSPs to watch coming into the new year. But any hopes of going into business as a Google Wave service provider can now be considered dashed, as Google announces the discontinuation of Wave development due to a lack of interest. Here’s the obituary.

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Famed Italian fashion house Roberto Cavalli has chosen to migrate their employees to the Google Apps cloud productivity suite — bringing them estimated infrastructure cost savings of a stylish 40,000 Euros (that’s about $52,000 USD) per year. Here are some quick details.

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With security policy compliance a hot-button issue among the likes of Microsoft and Google, it’s no surprise that technology companies are looking to help MSPs ease their standards-minded customers’ minds. Enter eGestalt, which has launched their “managed compliance provider” partner program, designed to give MSPs a SaaS solution to ensure IT compliance — and give them a recurring revenue stream. Here’s the scoop.

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Google might seem infallible at times, but the truth is that data does disappear from the Google Apps SaaS productivity suite now and then. To address the problem, Backupify and Spanning Backup are two options designed to let enterprise Google Apps solutions providers back up and protect vital cloud-based data. Here’s the scoop.

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Apparently, it’s a red-letter week for Microsoft Online Services and the software giant’s All In cloud strategy. Specifically, Microsoft says The Dow Chemical Co., Hyatt Hotels & Resorts, and the University of Georgia have all inked deals to embrace Microsoft-powered productivity and collaboration cloud solutions. The big question: Will partners play a role in the SaaS engagements?

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The launch of Google Apps for Government goes beyond just answering some lingering concerns about the cloud: it marks the birth of a new SaaS battleground between the search giant and their rivals at Microsoft. Here’s why.

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