As enamored as the tech world can be with the business to consumer relationships of Web 2.0 applications, Google understands what companies like Microsoft and IBM do – the real money is in business to business relationships.
Google Preps Postini For Business World
Google plans to push Postini, the email security firm they purchased, with business customers. They have offered existing Postini customers free use of Google Apps Premier Edition through June 2008, according to an AP report.
Google wants businesses to sign on with its Google Apps service. Fifty dollars annually per user gives them Google Docs and Gmail with a level of support; more importantly, Google does all of the application maintenance and upkeep, including spam filtering.
Email and the sensitivity of its content makes businesses wary of using an email service that isn’t under its direct control. Postini’s customers have used that product to protect existing mail servers.
Google began promoting Postini’s features, as incorporated into Google Apps. Postini enabled Google to offer security and compliance features for mail, including the ability to recover deleted emails on a 90-day rolling basis.
As an added incentive, Google will boost the storage capacity of Gmail for its Apps clients from 10GB to 25GB, according to AP. Along with the Postini security features, Google has a much stronger pitch to offer potential business clients.
It’s still not a Microsoft killer; that’s up to the market to decide. But Google Apps is reaching a level of maturity where it can be reasonably considered. It isn’t just the applications and email features a business would receive, but the ability to lower demands on internal tech staff for application and email support.
Some businesses will find that last part a compelling one, and we’re sure Google will make it a point of discussion during its pitch to the business market.
