Going to Google Apps..
This week i closed my Office365 account and migrated my domain name to Google Apps, not a quick decision, however one which I feel over the long term is a better solution for my needs.
Why did I do this?
I guess the first thing to say here is that i don’t dislike Office365 i think Microsoft have done a bang up job on the product and proved that the 15% of features that most of us use within the normal desktop office suite are more than catered for within the browser experience. Exchange love it or hate it is done well within the system and it seems really easy to setup users.
Microsoft have done a really good job as well o getting their mail client into the mobile phone arms race with all the big players offering an Exchange 2007 + compatible client plugin. These work excellently in IOS and Android and even more so as they are push based and that makes them just as good if not better than blackberry for mail.
So why did I move if it’s all so good? It boiled down really to the fact i’ve like many others become hugely invested in the google infrastructure, I understand that i’m just a gathering base of statistical information for the company however they do supply me with better than average apps.
Over the years i’ve got entwined in Google+, Google Drive, Google Calendar, Google Reader, Google Mail and other services I felt it was time to go the whole hog and go down the Google Apps route with my own domain name.
I’m afraid that may not be the most emblazoned life changing reason for you to go Google Apps however it’s all i’ve got.. Oh, and it was cheaper than Office365 by 50p a month..
So how was the move?
The migration if you have an existing domain name which is being used on Office365 takes a little while. The first thing you need to do is unhook your DNS from the Microsoft servers in my case this was simple in so far as hover.com provided a reset button for pointing my nameservers away from Microsoft and back to hover.
Given DNS takes a while to change all those settings and propagate that information around the web, there was a wait for this to happen, a few hours at most really. Google then want you to prove you own the domain in hover’s case this was best done by the insertion of a txt string on the DNS server. Google do offer other methods such as putting strings into HTML files on a webserver used by the domain or on Google Analytics.
Once i’d proven that the domain was mine, again, the propagation of DNS information being slow and steady Google acknowledged and opened the doors to my new Apps account.
There is an interesting Wizard for setting up the various aspects of the account now ensures where you setup users (or user in my case) and permissions, billing and then you get the opportunity to use pretty domain names for Mail, Calendar, Sites and the other areas of the systems so you get things like mail.<yourdomainname.com> and calendar.<yourdomainname.com> this again needs changes on the DNS server setting up CNAME entries.
Once you’ve done the wizard you’re done, mails come in, IOS and Android connect, it’s all good..
What were the issues?
The first “issue” i noted was the segregation between my google.com account and my Google Apps account which I understand to a point, Google are pushing this a lot to business and education where you’d want that separation of accounts.
If you are a user like me however this raises a few issues, i’m already invested in google, my Wallet account is linked to Google Play with purchases which if i was to migrate over to the new Google Apps system i’d lose those purchases.
There are ways to get access to that google.com data.
Google Calendar
To share your calendar with specific users, follow the steps below. If you are a Google Apps user, you can also use these steps to share a calendar with your Google Apps account after the recent transition.
- In the calendar list on the left side of the page, click the down-arrow button next to a calendar, then select Share this calendar. (Alternatively, click the Settings link at the bottom of the calendar list, then select a calendar and click the Share this calendar link.)
- Enter the email address of the person you want to share your calendar with.
- From the drop-down menu, select a level of permission, then click Add. (Once you click Add, the person you selected to share the calendar with will receive an email invitation to view your calendar.)
You can currently share your calendar with up to 75 users per day. If you’d like to share your calendars with more users, please wait 24 hours before trying again.
Google Drive/Docs
By default, you’re the owner of every doc you create and of every file that you sync or upload. However, you can transfer ownership of Google Docs and folders to anyone you’d like, as long as that person has an email address.
Only Google Apps customers in Premier, Education and Government domains can transfer ownership of a synced or uploaded file (such as a PDF or image file).
If you’re using Google Drive and Google Docs with a personal account, you can’t transfer ownership of a synced or uploaded file.
- Go to drive.google.com.
- Check the box next to the file or folder you’d like to share.
- Click the Share icon
.
OR
Click the More menu and select “Share…”
- Open the doc that you don’t want to own anymore.
- If the new owner already has access, skip to Step 6. Otherwise, follow these steps:
- Click the white space below ‘Add people.’
- Type the email address of the new owner.
- Click Share & save.
- Click the drop-down menu to the right of the new owner’s name; choose “Is owner.”
- Click Share & save.
After you transfer ownership, you’ll have access to the doc as an editor.
Things to consider before you transfer ownership
Being the owner of a doc gives you a lot of control over the file, and once you change owners, you give up those controls. So before you transfer ownership, here are the things you’ll no longer be able to do:
- Remove collaborators
- Share with as many people as you like
- Change visibility options
- Allow your collaborators to change access privileges for others
- Permanently delete something from Google Drive. After it’s deleted, no one can access it, including those it was shared with.
Google Reader
To move your Reader feeds from one Google Account to another account, just follow these steps:
- Sign in to the Reader account where you have your existing feeds.
- Click the Gear icon at the top of the page.
- Then select Reader Settings > Import/Export > Export your subscriptions.
- Save the exported XML file to your computer.
- Sign out and sign back in to Reader with the account where you want to add your feeds.
- Click the Gear icon at the top of the page.
- Then select Import/Export > Import subscriptions
- Browse to the exported XML file you saved to your computer
- Click Upload.
Note that this process will only move your feeds, and will not move your trends, followers, people you are following, folders, shared links, or other information associated with your Google Reader.
Google+
As it stands at the time of writing Google+ seems to be a recent transition to the Google Apps Suite and Google appear to be working on a migration application. Nothing working right now
General Migrations
As it happens google are pretty good at helping you getting data in and out of its services and more information can be found on their site at: http://support.google.com/a/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1041297
Conclusion
I think a general migration tool as part of the setup Wizard could be a great move for google moving forward. However as it stands right now I’ve got what i need where i want it i’m happy running a google and a google apps account. One is public the other private best way to play the internet.
I’m loving that Google is letting me switch between multiple logins on its website toolbar this is making life easier. And apps such as CloudOn and iShare+ seem to be working well with my new Apps account.
Looking forward to see what Google’s Office suite and collaboration provides me….
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