4 replies to this topic

[nirmaldaniel]

Google is one of the biggest email service providers and there has been and there is no doubt over it. Quite a long time back, Google has expanded its Apps in which they even provide email services for corporates. Which simple means if you own a domain name, something like www.mydomain.com and if you wish to have email ID's associated with that domain, like name@mydomain.com then it is not an easy way.You have to set up your own web server, like Novel server etc. Setting up a own web server calls for several other issues like, one must hold a static IP Address etc. So in short setting up a own web server and hosting mail service like name@mydomin.com is not gonna be that easy.

So now that Google is giving a helping hand for all these kinda companies. It is not necessariy that one companies can go for it. Schools, Colleges,organization or any one, even an individual can for it . For instance even XISTO has the all name@xisto.com hosted with Google Aps ( This piece of information is authentic and i am not cooking it up ) Now that to use this service all one needs to do is own a domain name simple as that. Then they can use Google's service and get email ID's for their domain.

The mail service is exactly the Gmail service which google offers when some one wants to have name@mydomain.com with the help of Google App.

Now the question is is this service of Google actually serve the purpose to the fullest. Yes, I do agree that this is one of the excellent service which Google offers and many people opt for the same. If some one is to host a webserver at his place then it is gonna be a tedious job. Moreover while hosting a webserver lots of security issues are taken into considerations. The webserver must have adequeate security policies enforced etc. So instead of this if some one goes for what Google provides, Google takes care of all the security issues. The interesting this is the service is almost free of cost.

But i find a major disadvantage in using this Google service. And i can say that it is an option which Google must consider and give it along with its service which provides this emails for private domain names. Just let me put forth a simple scenario where an organization is using this Google Aps and provides Emails with name@organizationdomain.com , in such a case lets take there are 7000 email ID's needed and it is got from Google and all the people from that particular organization is using that mail service . On one fine day there is a malacious mail which escapes from the corporate firewall and it reaches the inbox of the 7000 users. In such a case the Admin of the concerned network is very much considered about this mail and he wants it to remove the mail forcefully from all the 7000 inbox, because lets say , that mails is harmful in all sense. Now that Since the company has used Google services here for creating emails ( Google Apps ) the Network Admin cannot revoke the delivered mails from the 7000 inbox.

It might be a illegal content, might be some thing harmful or what ever it may be, the network admin has not been given an option to revoke mails which has been sent to the company's mail ID's.

On the other hand if it was a private mail server, lets say Novel , in such a case the Network Admin can revoke all the particular mail from all the 7000 Inbox. This is one of the most important option which is needed for a corporate and by using the Google Apps as the mail service provider for corporate, the network admin looses this option.

Now my question is why cant Google add this option ?? to its Google Apps where mail service is provided for people who own domains.

[shadowx]

Your example of an admin needing to delete an email from 7000 email boxes is largely irrelevant. Gmail is meant for personal users and in the case of me@mysite.com it is for webmasters. Not for corporate email solutions.

Any company with its own head office and its own IT support should have its own, private, on site email server.

Any company that doesnt have that is way behind the times. It's not difficult for an experienced ICT tech to setup and is a hell of a lot easier to maintain and customize and protect.

[galexcd]

shadowx, on Apr 27 2010, 03:03 AM, said:

Any company with its own head office and its own IT support should have its own, private, on site email server.

I completely agree, storing your company's private email data on gmail's webservers seems like it could have potential legality issues. Any business and school should use their own servers for something as important as email. However I am beginning to see many small businesses and schools start to use google apps for their employee/student email.

[shadowx]

I work in a school and we have a custom coded email system. I believe it runs from an Apache server running some variation of linux with a custom coded front end intranet. I have only been here a year so i'm not 100% on the details but we would never even think of using gmail or another web based service. We want complete control and understanding. As it stands if something isnt right with out intranet we ring the guy who coded it (and used to work here) and within a day we can have it either fixed or even upgraded. We have complete control over redirects, aliases, usernames, passwords, restrictions, filtering, access levels etc... and you just cant get that outside.

Google docs however is something i would love to see us use more in the sense that it offers an unrivalled way to work on the go. Especially for school trips and senior staff conferences across other schools. Again we have our own system for remote access to documents but as of yet remote access to software is a different story. It is easy to download open office which is compatible assuming the student saves the document correctly but its not a perfect solution for kids who dont understand how to safely download and install stuff.

Google has its place but the corporate environment isnt it... yet...

[mahesh2k]

Instead of using mail and doc program. Other program with domain name can be useful. Like GTalk with domain name could be one good thing to add to small business. I do think that using mail programs using cpanel or using commercial paid script is one good option to not let google or yahoo get spyglass on your data. Horde, squirrelmail and some other mail programs for your domain can do similar task like gmail. Only issue you'll have with gtalk or with any messenger. For that it's better to use service that let's your business unit download and use messenger. I find that some of the commercial messenger softwares are similar to gtalk. (the place where i work used Unimobile messenger earlier).