Announcing upload and store anything in Google Docs

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Earlier this year we launched the ability to store and share any file on Google Docs. Since then, we've received great feedback from our users and today we're excited to announce the logical extension of this feature: the ability to store anything on Google Docs.
Just like files in Google Docs, you can easily access any physical object you’ve stored with Google and share it with anyone in the world. For example, you can save on business trip costs by avoiding baggage fees -- just store your luggage in Google Docs before you travel! Forgot your cell phone at home? Have a friend post it on Google Docs and download it on the go. And now you never have to run out of business cards -- store some online and you’ll be able to retrieve them whenever you meet someone!
We also make it easy to search and find what you need across your entire collection of objects, with automatic indexing of everything you store on Google Docs. And as with all your files, you can rest easy knowing your objects are securely stored in the cloud.
With competitive pricing starting at $0.10 per kg, along with free pickup and delivery from any location on the planet, now it’s easy to store everything on Google Docs. To learn more about this new feature and how to join the beta test, head on to the our informational page. Only a fool would pass this up!
Posted by Hicham Alaoui, Associate Product Marketing Manager, Google Apps

Give your Google Message Security filters a tune-up

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Google Postini security services work in the cloud to help prevent spam and viruses before they hit your servers. These services also make it easy for admins to fine-tune filtering options to get the right level of protection for their organization's unique needs.
It can often be a delicate balance between protecting networks from attacks and allowing employees the flexibility to use email effectively. To help achieve this balance, today we're introducing a new Google Message Security reporting feature: Health Check.
Health Check helps you maximize the effectiveness of your spam filters. Think of it as a self-service "tune-up" for your Postini filters. It gives admins a comprehensive report that will help them check how current configurations impact the effectiveness of antispam and antivirus filters.
This report also highlights deviations from our recommended best practices, so that you can see areas where more protection might be helpful and select the levels that best meet your needs. For example, reports can "flag" areas of risk in user-defined settings, help optimize Approved Sender Lists, and guide the way you set up firewalls.

In this snippet from a Health Check report, the Virus Outbreak Level for this account is set to "Normal" (see red outline over item "2"). Our guidelines suggest that admins set this to Very High to increase security against viruses and malware. Deviations from recommended best practices are highlighted in red text so you can easily identify where changes can be made to tighten security.

You can see a larger view here.

With Health Check, we hope to empower administrators to make the best use of Postini Services. Health Check is now available through the Postini service administration console to Postini and Google Apps Premier Edition customers.
For more information the Google Postini suite of security and archving services, visit www.google.com/postini
Posted by Gopal Shah, Google Postini team

Announcing Dual Delivery for Google Postini Services

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Today we're introducing Dual Delivery, a new feature for Google Message Security that enables a copy of an email to be delivered to two different mail hosts. Dual Delivery provides two benefits. First, it can be used to support a transition to a new email service; second, it can be used as a backup email access point.
Dual Delivery allows an interruption-free transition to a new email solution. By enabling incoming email messages to be copied and sent to two different mailhosts, Dual Delivery gives users the chance to familiarize themselves with a new email platform without disrupting mailflow to the existing system. It also gives IT the chance to learn from user behavior and understand the technical implications of a transition before a full rollout.

Take a closer look here.

Dual Delivery also makes it easier to pilot and transition to Google Apps. By enabling the "Send a copy to Google Apps Gmail" feature of Dual Delivery, you can test Gmail without interrupting current practice. If you choose to switch over to Google Apps, you can enable the "Use Google Apps Gmail" feature in the Administration Console to directly route all of your mail to Gmail without having to manually reroute your MX records.

Dual Delivery can also be used as a secondary email access point. If users are unable to access their primary mailbox for any reason, or if admins want to give users cloud-based remote or mobile email access, Dual Delivery can provide read/write email access through a secondary inbox.
Dual Delivery is now available to Postini customers through the Delivery Manager settings in the Postini Administration Console.
For more information about the Google Postini suite of security and archiving services, visit www.google.com/postini
Posted by Gopal Shah, Google Postini team
Update 04/05/2010: Dual Delivery is not a tool for migrating historical email or legacy data. It is a tool that makes it easier to transition to a new email system, like Google Apps, by having production email show up in both the new system and the legacy system, allowing you to evaluate both. Please check our Switching from Microsoft Exchange and Switching from Lotus Notes posts, for more information on migrating to Google Apps.

Announcing the Google Apps Marketplace YouTube channel

Friday, March 26, 2010

Hot on the heels of our Google Apps Marketplace release, we're pleased to announce today a new YouTube channel, youtube.com/appsmarketplace.
The Apps Marketplace YouTube channel showcases videos from Marketplace vendors. Ranging from funny to informative, from cartoons to screencasts, these videos are meant to convey the benefits of extending Google Apps with integrated apps that work seamlessly with Gmail, Calendar, Docs and more. We're happy to already have more than a dozen videos in the channel and over 60 integrated app vendors in the Marketplace, and look forward to more great things as the Marketplace grows.
Please enjoy these examples of our Marketplace vendors' hard work. Thanks for the videos, guys!

Aviary:

ScheduleOnce:

MindMeister:

To get started using great apps like these, visit google.com/appsmarketplace, or watch our own short demo video explaining how the Marketplace works.
Are you a developer? Visit developer.googleapps.com and start building.
Posted by Chris Kelly, Google Apps Marketplace team

Creating data visualization dashboards with Google Maps API Premier

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Editor's note: Ryan Goodman is the founder of Centigon Solutions, Inc. and is an expert in business intelligence dashboards with BusinessObjects Xcelsius. Using Google Maps API Premier, Centigon has created a dashboard application to help users better visualize complex data from SAP BusinessObjects. With hundreds of succesful dashboard projects under his belt, he continues to innovate in applying geographic analysis for performance management dashboards using Google Maps Premier.
As co-author of "Crystal Reports 2008 the Official Guide," and a frequent contributor to trade publications, Ryan continues to push the envelope for what's possible with dashboards and Xcelsius on his personal blog: www.ryangoodman.net/blog.
Enterprise organizations that utilize Business Intelligence dashboard technologies require flexible mapping solutions to meet a range of geo-analysis requirements for performance management dashboards. With numerous potential use cases for bringing maps into dashboards, customers have long struggled between static graphics or traditional GIS solutions.
While static images don't provide enough flexibility to address all business needs, feature-rich GIS solutions are sometimes more than most business users need. To facilitate flexibility and ease-of-use for dashboard end users, Centigon Solutions has helped Google Maps become a rich enterprise visualization tool with GMaps Plugin for Xcelsius 2008. GMaps Plugin empowers developers to deploy Google Maps API Premier enabled dashboards to drive geographic visualization of performance management metrics without without writing a single line of code.
Centigon Solutions has bridged the gap between SAP BusinessObjects' on-premise dashboard technology and Google Maps API Premier service, making geo-analysis accessible at any level of an organization, and in any industry. Using a simple property sheet, dashboard developers can align geographic dimensions with performance measures and then deploy a fluent Google Maps experience to business users. From global financial metrics to city-level risk analytics, both technical and non-technical users can leverage GMaps Plugin's seamless integration with Google Maps API Premier to create compelling analysis – in minutes.
Organizations that rely on on-premise, on-demand solutions require easy methods for analyzing and communicating information queried from these systems. In the dashboard shown below, an analyst required a mashup of Salesforce.com campaign/lead data and enterprise financial data to measure campaign effectiveness. GMaps Plugin provided the location intelligence required to quickly digest a large volume of information.

View live dashboard
The example shows how multiple marketing campaigns across the United States were created and tracked through Salesforce.com. Powered by GMaps Plugin, Google Maps API Premier, and Force.com Integration (hosted on Google App Engine), this dashboard empowers marketing professionals to view and drill into each campaign and visually digest campaign results. The resulting analysis provided a visual proximity of attendees and their response rate.
From this information, the user can make informed decisions to what regions should receive priority for future campaigns. This new visibility into lead data provides a new perspective for a marketing analysts to make more informed decisions through guided analysis.
While traditional reporting solutions can present drillable tabular data, the graphical and spatial analysis gained with a Google Maps API Premier enabled dashboard increases the speed, depth, and efficiency of data analysis. By mobilizing Google Maps API Premier for enterprise performance management reporting and dashboards, Centigon Solutions improves the way business decision makers can interpret key information. Visit our website to learn more about GMaps Plugin and the Google Maps API Premier case study page for more success stories.

About Centigon Solutions: Centigon Solutions Inc. couples business insight with technical expertise to deliver quality business intelligence dashboard solutions. Centigon Solutions Inc. is strategically focused on creating interactive visualization technology for developers and business users. As thought leaders in dashboard and Web 2.0 technologies for the enterprise, Centigon Solutions is also recognized as the premier developer of Xcelsius® add-on solutions, including GMaps Plugin.
Posted by Natasha Wyatt, Google Earth and Maps Enterprise team

An update for our customers on Google Apps and China

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Yesterday, we stopped censoring our search services – Google Search, Google News, and Google Images – on our Chinese domain, www.google.cn. This makes good on our commitment to stop censoring search results in China, and you can read more here. In terms of Google's wider business operations, we intend to continue R&D work in China and maintain a sales presence there. We’d like to share some additional information on how this may affect your employees that use Google Apps within mainland China.
First, we very much hope that the Chinese government respects our decision, though we are well aware that China could at any time block access to our services in mainland China. We will be carefully monitoring access issues and we have created this new web page, which we will update regularly each day, so that you can see which Google services are available in China.
Note that you can continue to view performance information for Google Apps services outside of China on the Google Apps Status Dashboard.
Second, it is important to know that there are several networking configurations and associated technologies available to help ensure ongoing access to your critical business services such as Gmail, Google Calendar, and Google Docs. These network configurations, such as a Virtual Private Network (VPN) connection, secure shell (SSH) tunneling, or using a proxy server, are already in place by many businesses with worldwide operations who serve their users from various locations. Companies should consult their own technical, legal and policy personnel to find a solution that works best for them.
Finally, we do not host any Google Apps services, or your data, in mainland China. Moreover, Google employees in mainland China do not have access to any Apps systems or customer data.
We recognize that these issues are not unique to Google; many technology companies serving users in China face challenges in providing access to their services, and we don't see yesterday’s news changing how we serve you moving forward.
Feel free to contact us with any questions via our support channels. Thanks for reading.
Posted by the Google Apps team

Consolidating 10 Email Systems Down to One: Google Apps

Monday, March 22, 2010

Editor's note: Today’s guest blogger is Melvin Shaffer, VP of global infrastructure delivery and support at MWV, a $6.6 billion packaging company. In December, MWV announced it had gone Google. Mel is responsible for all aspects of infrastructure delivery including strategy, finance, service management, telecom, desktop, field services, and the infrastructure outsourcing relationship supporting mainframe, distributed, storage, messaging, and service desk.
Mel's experience spans 30 years in IT management and consulting across a range of industries including Fortune 50 pharmacy, healthcare, petroleum and telecommunications companies.

Join Mel and Wietze de Vries, Principal IT Architect at MWV, for a live webcast on Thursday, March 25, 2010 at 2:00 p.m. EDT / 11:00 a.m. PDT / 7:00 p.m. GMT. Mel and Wietze will talk about MWV's approach to moving 12,000 employees to Google Apps from multiple mail systems. Please note that registration will occur on a third party site.

MWV is 164 years old, and there were days when it showed. We had grown extensively through acquisitions, leaving us with 12 siloed email systems, including multiple instances of Microsoft® Exchange and Lotus Notes®/Domino® across the globe. We had to consolidate more than 10 email systems into one – a major undertaking.

From a technical standpoint, we saw that Google Apps would offer superior functionality, and would enable us to standardize globally and rapidly integrate new acquisitions. We checked out Google’s security capabilities in-depth – a major concern for us – and ended up satisfied. From a user standpoint, we conducted a pilot with 115 participants, 12 countries, and 40 functional groups. Ninety percent of them recommended Google.

For migration, we used a series of waves organized around one or more legacy email systems: sort of a mini “Big Bang” or a rolling thunder approach. Each time we did a go-live, we did not migrate email, we just changed user settings in Postini. We provisioned users a month in advance, letting them know how to sign on. We rebuilt fresh distribution lists and used a self-service tool to migrate personal contacts. We re-created calendar events with a fresh start.
To make sure we had mobile access covered, we piloted Google Apps with BlackBerry® devices, iPhones® and Android phones.

Communications, change management and training – including recruiting volunteers to be “Google Guides” were key throughout the process. From a technical standpoint, we can tell you about the more trouble-prone areas of our implementation such as how legacy systems can contain a log of stale email accounts.

If you want to learn about the benefits and best practices of legacy email migration, we have a lot of experience. We welcome the opportunity to share the lessons we learned in moving a major enterprise to Google Apps.

Please join us for this live event.

MWV on Consolidating 10 Email Systems Down to One: Google Apps
Thursday, March 25, 2010
2:00 p.m. EDT / 11:00 a.m. PDT / 6:00 p.m. GMT

Posted by Serena Satyasai, The Google Apps team

Find customer stories and research product information on our resource sites for current users of Microsoft® Exchange and Lotus Notes®/Domino®.

Official Blog

Announcing upload and store anything in Google Docs

Give your Google Message Security filters a tune-up

Announcing Dual Delivery for Google Postini Services

Announcing the Google Apps Marketplace YouTube channel

Creating data visualization dashboards with Google Maps API Premier

An update for our customers on Google Apps and China

Consolidating 10 Email Systems Down to One: Google Apps

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