Microsoft Moves to Slow Google Apps with Price Cuts
by Tony Bianco, President Cloud Computing Division
If you really think about it, there are several hindrances to Microsoft catching Google on the Cloud-based messaging and collaboration front:
1. Hardware and Network Infrastructure - this is the silver bullet for Google. Google has worked for 15 plus years in building out their infrastructure. They are the third-largest hardware manufacturer in the world and they keep all of it for their own systems. To replicate this will literally take years for Microsoft and they are just getting started now with a meager $130 million investment. They are way behind.
Introducing Mithril Support
Today, we’re excited to announce the next evolution in Google Apps Support: the Mithril Support Package! While Onix has always offered Bronze, Silver, and Gold Support for Google Apps, our new package goes above and beyond anything previously seen in the market.
Proactive “Respond Before you Submit”
Using Google’s latest predictive technology, we can actually foresee your support needs and respond to your tickets BEFORE you submit them! Using this revolutionary new system, you will often receive replies that we are working on your tickets before you send them to us.
Publish a Web Site from Google Drive
by Cyrus Loree, Google Apps Support Engineer
Do you like Google Sites but want the ability for truly customized websites? And have them hosted by Google? Well, Google Drive has a pretty awesome secret. Read on.
Google Drive provides the ability to serve static web content directly from a folder in Drive. Upload your HTML, CSS and image files, and Google Drive will automatically serve as your Index.html file. Drive also supports client-side scripting languages such as JavaScript.
Don’t Believe Everything You Read
by Greg Heier, Technical Support Manager
On August 15th, Google announced a plan to transition Postini customers over to Google Apps, and some Google competitors are capitalizing on this change to promote it as a deficiency. We’d like to clarify and remind you that you can’t always believe what you read. The most important things to understand about the transition are:
The Hybrid Model - The Worst of Both Worlds
by Greg Heier, Technical Support Manager
Recently, Toyota has been in the news for announcing that it is adopting Office 365 as its cloud-based solution. However, there’s some very important fine print to examine with this announcement.
First off, Microsoft was careful to say that they will be “offering” Office 365 to all of Toyota’s employees. This seems to indicate there’s really no focus on transitioning to the cloud and changing any business models.
Cloud Case Study: US Holocaust Memorial Museum
Jim Gee is a Federal Account Manager at Onix.
Last week I was able to attend a panel discussion at Google’s Washington, DC office revolving around the US Holocaust Memorial Museum’s (USHMM) transition to Google Apps for Government.
The panel included:
- Joseph Kraus, CIO, US Holocaust Memorial Museum
- Dave Lyon, Head of Professional Services, Onix Networking
- David Mihalchik, Head of Google Apps Federal, Google
Do I need “Change Management” for a Google Deployment?
This is the second installment in a series of articles on Change Management for Google Apps deployments.
Dave Lyon leads the Project Management and Change Management practice for Onix. He has more than 20 years project management experience and is a certified change management consultant.
Unlike Project Management, which has become a recognized discipline within our workforce, Change Management is still largely misunderstood. Whereas Project Management has structured tools for managing the technical, schedule, and cost components of a project, Change Management is erroneously viewed as being composed of “soft skills” that are more of an art than a science.
Google Apps: The Cloud is a Square Hole
Microsoft likes to use its blogs to criticize Google Apps. The following post is in response to one such article in mid-August by Tony Tai, which claimed that using Google Apps is like “forcing a square peg into a round hole”. Onix’s Support Manager Greg Heier argues that if Google Apps is a square peg, then the Cloud must be a square hole.
Google Apps Script: Pushing Gmail to a Google Site Automatically
Google Apps Script provides some pretty nifty tools for integrating logic and workflow within your domain. Tools include the GmailApp and SitesApp which handle Google Mail and Google Sites, respectively. In today’s example we’ll be gathering email from a certain mailing list and pushing it to a Google Site automatically. This would be an alternative to viewing the group from the Groups UI which provides a similar functionality.
This is a relatively simple script but we’ll break it down step-by-step for those who are curious. Anyone who wants to get right to business can copy the entire script (including comments) at the end of this article.
After You Move to The Cloud, What Support Might You Need?
by Greg Heier, Technical Support Manager
Investing in the cloud is often an important step for businesses to modernize, consolidate, and reorganize their IT infrastructure. It represents significant change for both management and employees. For everyone’s peace of mind, it’s important that these changes are backed by true Enterprise-level support. That’s why you’ll want to consider your options when selecting the level of support your organization needs.
Google Apps Scripts Automate Daily Tasks
Cory Todd is a Google Apps Support Engineer with Onix.
As more people have made the switch to Google Apps, it has become clear that the next natural step is to simplify and automate daily tasks. The Google ecosystem provides a solid foundation upon which users can freely and easily coordinate the flow of data between Google Services.
Enter Google Apps Script: A scripting solution that runs entirely in the cloud and provides API access to many Google and third-party services as well as standard Javascript functionality. Those looking to replace the old VB Excel macros may soon discover many more ways to produce effective and visually appealing work flow.
Executive Sponsorship: Make it visible
This is the first in a series of articles on Change Management for Google Apps deployments.
Dave Lyon leads the Project Management and Change Management practice for Onix. He has more than 20 years project management experience and is a certified change management consultant.
All change management experts will tell you that one of the keys to any successful change is executive sponsorship, but what does this mean and why is this so important?
You Say You Want a Revolution...
In 1903 George Bernard Shaw published “The Revolutionist’s Handbook and Pocket Companion”. The book’s forward starts with this line...
“A revolutionist is one who desires to discard the existing social order and try another.”
In case you haven’t noticed, corporate IT is in the midst of a revolution.
Corporate executives around the world are evaluating their options for discarding existing ways of doing business and replacing them with new solutions. Just as the introduction of electricity distribution changed manufacturing during the Industrial Revolution ,
