Google Apps for Work is a service from Google that provides independently customizable versions of several Google products using a domain name provided by the customer. It features several Web applications with similar functionality to traditional office suites, including Gmail, Hangouts, Google Calendar, Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slides, Groups, News, Play, Sites, and Vault. It was the vision of Rajen Sheth, a Google employee who later developed Chromebooks.[1]
Google Apps for Work is free for 30 days, US$5 per user account per month thereafter, or $50 per user, per year. Google Apps for Education and Google Apps for Non-profits (for accredited 501(c)(3) non-profit entities) are free and offer the same amount of storage as Google Apps for Work accounts.[2]
In addition to shared apps (calendar, docs, etc.), Google provides Google Apps Marketplace, an app store for Google Apps users. It contains various apps, both free and paid, which can be installed to customize the Google Apps for Work experience for the user.[3]
Google Apps is available in several editions. Each edition has a limit for the number of individual user accounts that may be created. Google Apps launched with a default user allotment of 200 users in the standard (free) edition, which was shortly changed to 100 users. In addition, users could request to have their user limit increased through a manual process taking (at least) 1–2 weeks for approval. In January 2009, the cap was changed so that all new accounts would receive only 50 users as opposed to 100, and could not request more without payment.[4] This was confirmed as relating to the launch of the Google Apps commercial reseller program. Existing Standard Edition users before January 2009 kept their old allocation, in addition to the ability to “request” more users, though these limit requests are now commonly answered with suggestions to “upgrade your subscription”.[5] In 2011, the limit on the free Google Apps product was further reduced to 10 users, effective for new users. On December 6, 2012, Google decided to discontinue Google Apps Free Edition (Standard Edition). New business customers will be redirected to register for Google Apps Work Edition while existing Google Apps Standard Edition accounts will continue to be operational.[6]
The subscription level of a Google Apps edition is billed based on the total number of available users in the Apps account, and the edition features apply to all user accounts in that subscription. It is not possible to purchase upgrades for a subset of users: to increase the user limit, subscriptions must be purchased for all accounts. For example, an upgrade from a “Standard” limit of 50 users to allow up to 60 users would involve paying for 60 users, whether they are used or not. [7]
According to an announcement at the Google I/O conference in June 2012, Gmail had 425 million users and 5 million businesses used Google Apps for Business.[16][17] Google announced at the Google I/O in June 2014 that Google Drive had 190 million monthly active users, and that 8% of the Fortune 500 companies as well as 72 of the top universities are using Google Drive.[18]
Google is making a concerted effort to increase usage, particularly in the public sector. The most recent example was the announcement in June, 2011 by US government agency, NOAA, that their 25,000 government employees would be migrated to Google Apps for Work by year’s end.[19] In 2009, Los Angeles, California awarded Google a five-year contract to provide Google Apps services to 34,000 employees.[20] As of early 2011, the City of Los Angeles was still in the process of deploying Google Apps after objections from LAPD officials surfaced about privacy.[21] In early 2010, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory shifted 5,000 email accounts to Google Apps.[20] On July 22, 2010, the General Services Administration certified that Google Apps met its cybersecurity requirements.[20] On October 29, 2010, Google filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Interior, which opened up a bid for software that required that bidders use Microsoft’s Business Productivity Online Suite. Google sued, calling the requirement “unduly restrictive of competition”.[22]
Few independent studies exist documenting the true cost savings of enterprises adopting SaaS solutions such as Google Apps. One recent non-independent study from Forrester Research indicates that large enterprises can achieve up to 329% ROI and a breakeven point of 1.4 months.[23] A model company of 18,000 employees was used for the Forrester study.
Google provides a reseller program for Google Apps. As of July, 2012 more than 6000 businesses had signed up to resell the solution.[24]
Analyst firm the Real Story Group cited several weaknesses in Google Apps in a comparative review which referenced a lack of administration, customization, and lifecycle services that might hamper effectiveness in large enterprise environments.[43]
Data security issues mean that online application platforms can be unsuitable where sensitive or confidential data is to be stored. This is particularly true for governments (where national interests might preclude storing information abroad) and large commercial entities (where any data leak can have severe financial consequences), and individuals (where ID theft can have devastating financial consequences or destroy a reputation).