Research report warns that deploying Google Apps with its 'rudimentary' feature set as an Office replacement could be a career-limiting move

Deploying Google Apps could be a "career-limiting move for enterprise architects" if they expect too much from the software-as-a-service collaboration suite and its "rudimentary" feature set, the Burton Group research and consulting firm says in a new report.

Google Apps is useful in a limited set of circumstances, the report says. Start-ups and other small businesses might want to use it as a basic office and collaboration suite. Google Apps can also be considered a point solution for businesses that need a "lite" collaboration or enterprise content-management application, or a rudimentary replacement of Microsoft Office for "non-power users" who need only basic e-mail, word processing, and spreadsheet capabilities.

Even at Google's offices, Apps is used internally only as a collaboration add-on to Microsoft Office, the report says.

"Google has caught the attention of enterprises with its inexpensive Google Apps Premier Edition (GAPE) product: available at $50 per user, per year," the Burton Group's Guy Creese writes. "However, the seductive price can spell trouble for enterprise architects and their companies if they don't do their homework: the solution's rudimentary feature set means that enterprises need to pick carefully and implement slowly."

The 55-page report was released last week and is titled "Google Apps in the Enterprise: A Promotion-Enhancing or Career-Limiting Move for Enterprise Architects?"

Comparing features

Send via e-mail | Submit to Digg | Add to Live Favorites