1) They asked. Microsoft Communication Services is cloud hosted Exchange and Sharepoint + Outlook 2010. Rackspace waived the $12.50/month fee on their plan for 1-year, in exchange for our feedback. I’ll also share my experiences here, and in future posts. $150 in free services didn’t motivate the change. I was curious, and excited to explore an alternative to Google Apps. A 14-day free trial is available to everyone.

2) Gmail performance issues. Randomly, inexplicably, without warning, and without explanation Gmail gets slow. Not usually a big deal for personal email, but a productivity killer, or even loss of business for some. For a company that prides itself on speed, Gmail suffers. Some people are even begging to pay for better performance.

Google, please set a price — any price — that you determine is necessary to keep anyone’s account running smoothly at all times. I’ll gladly pay it. I don’t care if it’s $100 a year or $1,000 a year. It would be worth it.

What if you’re unlucky enough to have your emails accidentally deleted (and later restored)? When’s the last time you backed up your Gmail account?

Read the rest of this entry »

Earlier this evening, Google announced on its blog that the new Google Apps Marketplace is finally ready for your creative submissions. However, these Apps aren’t the same type as you would find for your iPhone or iPod Touch. Instead, this will be a store for enterprise apps in the cloud. Using a set of APIs, these third-party apps will be able to integrate their products within Google Apps.

Read the rest of this entry »