In a recent post entitled Introducing Google Apps for Government, Google announced that “Google Apps is the first suite of cloud computing applications to receive Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) certification and accreditation from the US Federal Government.” For those of you new to the term, cloud computing refers to the creation, storage and management of documents and communications online as opposed to on your desktop or laptop computer.
Offering such a high level, if not the highest level of security, government agencies, institutions, and businesses of all sizes can now “move to the cloud with confidence.” The beauty of the Google Apps cloud is the ability to share documents/spreadsheets and collaborate in their creation in a live environment online. No more trying to email large files or trying to remember which email has the latest version!
Google Apps allows you to share documents and spreadsheets that live in the cloud, viewing and editing them simultaneously with your team members. You can work with confidence knowing your team is literally on the same page with the most current information. Google Apps for Government offers users the highest level of security. However, to accommodate different levels of users, Google Apps is available for both Personal and Business use. Business Editions include Premier, Standard, Education, Government and Non-Profit.
The features and tools of the Standard, Education and Non-Profit Editions are the same and are available to users for free (non-profits with over 3,000 users are offered upgrade to Premier Edition at 40% discount of $30/user/year). The Premier and Government Editions are more feature-rich, with a cost of $50 per user/year, and include 25 GB of Gmail storage per user. Visit the links included here to learn more about the features and tools available with each Edition.
Google’s cloud promises users “higher reliability, best-in-class disaster recovery and access to a steady stream of innovation.” With no hardware or software to install and maintain, Google’s cloud may be a great choice for companies looking to reduce travel and IT costs or just the administrative headaches associated with the creation, sharing, and management of important documents, spreadsheets, reports, and presentations among group members.
