Bruce of Elguji fame asked why i don't pick on someone else for a change, Microsoft is so Turn of the Century.
To indulge him, and for Phigment's sake or was it Chris Toohey I have decided to focus on Gmail this week.
As pointed out by one of the latter individuals I can't compare Gmail to a Notes client. Fine, but I can compare it to the Webmail/iNotes/Domino web Access client.
As of 8.0.2 it has been renamed, again, back to iNotes for webmail and this comparison is really R8 iNotes vs. Gmail.
So first things first you get with Gmail currently 7GB of space for your email files.
GIGABYTES!
You also FOR FREE get Postini on the back end clearing your spam, which is very nice too.
Plus you have an embedded IM client(Gtalk of course) and it's all in a browser and it's free. Really, not Microsoft Free where they nail you in year 2 for everything, but really free....for now.
OK, this is a consumer side, I am not paying the $50 for the year for better service levels. Still so far sounds good right?
Now, what about iNotes? Licensing, server admin and costs and you can easily see where this is a losing proposition right and everyone should move to Gmail?
Not so fast, we have some other issues here.
Uptime. Domiono is solid, my servers are up until I need to upgrade them or enough Microsoft downloads are bugging me to restart my server. If yours aren't, connect with me and we can help you. Exchange too and Groupwise and cc:Mail but I digress.
Attachments, the reply with attachments options in iNotes is nice and helpful as is the ability to send ANYTHING. Gmail will not let me send zip or exe files. Why not? Can't Postini handle it? I wonder....
UI. Here I prefer iNotes hands down. I would like to see some items moved but unlike iGoogle this page is static. iNotes has a nice spacing in between everything so you don't feel all cluttered.
Also where is preview mode in Gmail? Yes some will say if you have it set to show Snippets you can at least read the 1st line, but it's not the same, is it?
Backups? none, unless I offload the mail to my Notes client which I do as an IMAP user.
OOO (Out of Office) is there too, simple piece in Gmail, but how much does one really need?
Accessible from your phone? Check for both.
Accessible offline? iNotes yes using DOLS for the offline service. Gmail nothing right now.
So if I need information from previous discussions, unless I have downloaded my emails to a mail client I have no way to access them when needing them potentially in front of clients. HUGE problem for Gmail.
If your server goes down, your IT staff fixes it. If your Gmail goes down, who do you call? What do you do? What backup plan did you have? If my ISP went down I could walk over to Starbucks and use their free Wi-Fi but that doesn;t help me if Gmail is down.
If you travel as much as I do, what would you do? I usually send out and reply to emails on flights because it is quiet time and I can catch up and replicate them out to send when we land. Gmail? I don't think so.
If I had a business where no one traveled and no one left the office I would probably be running a prison or a library but real world business is rarely sitting in one place. Maybe you go to see a client and they have open Wi-Fi, great, but usually that isn't the case.
So is Gmail great for business?In my case, no it isn't, although it may provide a better case if and when they go offline and provide some better UI.
Keith, There are some large Enterprise companies that are working directly with Google to make Gmail "Enterprise" ready. IBM needs to realize that the Gmail of today will not be the Gmail of tomorrow. In other words, don't wait until it's too late to nip this in the bud with something that will blow everyone's socks off.
ReplyDeleteJim,
ReplyDeleteYou're right, to a point.
The IP of a company or it's security doesn't want to get compromised.
Can you imagine that Coke would ever put their recipe on a Google server?
We'd all be able to Google it immediately.
You say no they have security, yeah, like Tj MAxx, the government and Microsoft Windows?
You cn never have perfect security, but at the same time, do I want my data stored in a possibly morally suspect country?
Not that Google stores data like that but there is a strong chance of that happening someday.
Will Google really blow us all away? Not likely. The excitement over Google's latest toys has not been excellent like Chrome and Android.
Right ideas, but the heavy hitters like IBM and Microsoft will take the Google first crack and build on it exponentially.
You totally missed Jim's point. IBM needs to step up its premise and cloud offerings to blow people away before Google has a chance to leapfrog the competition and define the playing field.
ReplyDeleteI see it differently. Google will not define it although they may lead to it.
ReplyDeleteWill Gmail become this excellent program in the future maybe, but IBM will definitely not be joining it that way.
iNotes was out there for years and readily available but companies are not interested and I don't think they have changed their mind at all, for the most part.
Cloud Computing is not for large corporates and probably never will be for a long time.
Should IBM do more for the SMB space? Yes, and they have a nice route currently with Lotus Foundations but it's just the tip of the iceberg.