Google improves tools to steal Microsoft customers

Google has launched enhanced migration tools for companies looking to migrate over from Microsoft Exchange and Outlook.

The first is Google Apps Migration for Microsoft Exchange, which comes with some performance improvements and supports a number of additional email clients, including Novell GroupWise, Cyrus, Dovecot and Courier.

Google Apps Migration for Microsoft Outlook now adds support for the 2010 version of the Redmond firm's software and for 64-bit editions of the client.

New versions of the search giant's Apps Sync for Microsoft Outlook and Calendar Connectors for Microsoft Exchange and Lotus Notes have also been launched.

"This year alone, customers have migrated over 3.5 billion emails to Google Apps, along with over 100 million calendar events and 25 million contacts," said Aditya Kulkarni, Google product manager, in a blog.

"But we're still working to make it even easier."

To the cloud

This week, IT PRO caught up with David McLeman, director of Ancoris a company that helps firms migrate over to Google's cloud-based operations.

He explained how companies had become increasingly interested in running their businesses from the cloud, with one of the main drivers being a desire for greater collaboration.

Addressing Microsoft's cloud computing efforts, McLeman said the Redmond giant had "the same challenge other on-premise firms have as their software is designed for on-premise [operation]."

"10 years ago you couldn't rely on the internet but now you are so seldom without internet access," he said.

"The argument that you have to have local data is becoming a dying issue."

Talking about security concerns surrounding the multi-tenancy model of cloud computing, something recently highlighted by Oracle head Larry Ellison, McLeman noted how firms had handed over critical parts of their operations to other companies in the past.

"We have trusted third parties for years, banks for example," McLeman said.

"The firewall is dead because we have pumped too many holes in it and many companies can't afford to fill the gaps."

Ancoris helped close to 30 companies migrate over to a Google-based architecture in the past 15 months, but McLeman said he expected this to double in the next year, highlighting the dramatic move to the cloud.