USING GOOGLE APPS FOR SMALL BUSINESS HOSTING MARCH 2015

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1 USING GOOGLE APPS FOR SMALL BUSINESS HOSTING MARCH 2015

2 Table of Contents Introduction... 3 Google Apps for Work...4 Key benefits of Google Apps...4 Huge amounts of storage...4 Peace of mind backup with Thunderbird...4 Easy to set up additional accounts on other computers...4 An excellent webmail experience...4 Google Apps Calendar and Tasks integration with Thunderbird...5 Uncompromised remote access to all your , all the time...5 Conclusion... 5 For more information...5 2

3 Introduction is a fundamental part of business communication. The hosting provider you choose for your company can profoundly affect your ability to work with flexibility and without disruption. For many small business owners, the cost of a dedicated professional hosting solution is prohibitive. An on site server plus the relevant software licenses and IT staff to maintain it can add up to thousands of dollars a year. To circumvent the cost issue, many businesses use free consumer focused services, such as Microsoft Hotmail or Google Gmail. The problems of using one of these free consumer services for business communication include: No support. There are no professional support people to contact if the server goes down. No customised addresses. Consumer style addresses (for example "@hotmail.com") create an unprofessional impression.1 Privacy and security. Consumer service terms of use may not be suitable for sensitive business communication. The service may also be vulnerable to hacking and other security breaches. Other businesses use the provided by their web hosting provider or internet service provider ("ISP"). This can mitigate the above issues, but it presents other problems that can expose your business data to considerable risk. Your ISP will typically only provide a very small amount of storage space for each account, sometimes in the order of only a few hundred megabytes ("MB"). To put this in perspective, an inexpensive USB flash drive will contain several times this amount in storage space, as will any of the common consumer services. One common way to work around this limitation is by setting up the application to automatically move data out of the account and onto the hard drive of your computer at regular intervals. But if your computer is stolen or has a critical hard drive failure, your data could be lost forever. The disruption and stress caused by the irretrievable loss of communication records with colleagues, customers, and other business organisations cannot be underestimated. Even if your computer hard disk is being backed up regularly, the restricted amount of account storage space imposed by ISP providers also has a negative impact on remotely accessing on mobile devices, such as Android or Apple phones and tablets. Typically only a small number of Inbox items can fit in the ISP account. This means that a sales representative (for example) who wants to urgently access historical items from an ipad while on the road, is simply unable to do so. Google Apps for Work in conjunction with the Mozilla Thunderbird client offers a powerful and affordable hosting solution for small businesses, which effectively research/perceptions business 3

4 reduces or eliminates the problems associated with using consumer or ISP based hosting. Google Apps for Work Google Apps for Work ("Google Apps") is a professional cloud based suite of business applications and services, produced by Google Inc. 2 The component of Google Apps is based on Google's popular Gmail service, but is backed by professional support, a guaranteed uptime service level agreement, and expanded account storage. Google Apps will also allow you to use a customised address such as your company domain name. Key benefits of Google Apps Huge amounts of storage Google Apps features 30 gigabytes ("GB") of storage per account.3 This is up to 250 times more than what is available with certain New Zealand based providers. With 30GB of online storage, you will generally be able to keep your entire account contents online in Google Apps most likely with ample remaining storage space. Peace of mind backup with Thunderbird We recommend Thunderbird as the preferred business client application for desktop and laptop computer connections to Google Apps. Using Thunderbird's synchronisation feature, you will always have a copy of your entire account contents both in Google Apps and transparently on the computer hard disk at all times. This provides an extra layer of resilience against network outages, as staff can still access even if there is no internet access. Also, the risk of any permanent data loss arising from a computer theft or hard disk failure is minimized, as a fresh copy of the entire account contents can always be retrieved from Google Apps if necessary. For more information on Thunderbird, please visit this link: Easy to set up additional accounts on other computers Because all can be held online in Google Apps, accounts can be set up quickly on additional computers in Thunderbird. Additionally, if there are problems with the account on any computer, it can simply be reconfigured and a fresh copy of retrieved from the server Storage amounts are spread across all Google Apps services. 4

5 An excellent webmail experience The Google Apps Gmail web interface ("webmail") can suit as a primary interface if (for example) Thunderbird can't be accessed from a dedicated computer or mobile device. Google Apps Calendar and Tasks integration with Thunderbird Google Apps accounts also feature built in calendaring and task lists, which seamlessly integrates with Thunderbird. Changes made to your Google Apps calendar and tasks in Thunderbird are immediately synchronised to all your other devices. Figure 1 Google Apps Calendar and Tasks support in Thunderbird. Uncompromised remote access to all your , all the time As noted above, 30GB of storage in Google Apps generally enables the entire account contents to be stored online. This means that staff can access all items and folders stored online from a mobile device such as an Android or Apple phone or tablet. Conclusion Google Apps in conjunction with Thunderbird offers a number of considerable advantages over both consumer based and ISP based , especially for small business owners. We are pleased to assist you in assessing your existing hosting arrangement and migrating your to Google Apps. 5

6 For more information Contact: Apertura Designs Ltd Auckland, New Zealand Apertura Designs. All rights reserved. Made exclusively with open source, open standards software. 6