Windows 7: Google Apps vs. Microsoft Office.

Google Apps or Microsoft Office? That is the question on the minds of many CIOs today.

Microsoft has long dominated the e-mail, collaboration and office tools market, and its customer list dwarfs that of Google and all other competitors. But despite the presence of well-established alternatives such as OpenOffice and IBM's Lotus Notes, some industry analysts believe Google may pose the strongest long-term threat to Microsoft's office dominance.

"Google is still a wannabe, but they're Google so this is a very strong challenger," says Laura DiDio, lead analyst with Information Technology Intelligence Corp (ITIC).

Tech Debate: Google Gmail vs. hosted Microsoft Exchange

Why should a business choose Google over Microsoft? Google is inexpensive, at $50 per user per year. Employees are often familiar with Gmail, so user training shouldn't be too burdensome. Outsourcing IT functions to Google lets businesses reduce internal IT expenditures and wasted time maintaining servers and applications. With Google, businesses get the basic productivity tools of e-mail, calendaring, and document creation and editing, as well as a Web site builder, private video sharing and other functions. (See related article, "Google Apps basics".)

Still not convinced. Sorry been using MS Office for to long, and have tested most of the different Office Suites and still haven't found one that can even come choose to MS Office.

Still not convinced. Sorry been using MS Office for to long, and have tested most of the different Office Suites and still haven't found one that can even come choose to MS Office.

I agree, and i think google is gonna remain "a wanna be" at least in a corporate environment. I would be surprised to see any significant jump.

While I could see a small business trying to keep expenses down using the Google Apps as long as their requirements are basic. However, if you have to do some real publishing, even OpenOffice 3.0 falls short, in my opinion. I tried both the Google Apps and OpenOffice 3.0, and went right back to Office 2007 Professional.

Bye.

I totally agree....Interface arguments aside...Microsoft Office 2010 is the most powerful Office productivity software on the planet

There is absolutely NO WAY Google will steal people away from Office (unless people don't want to pay for Office).

Google's main goals for the next year, he says, include increasing the functionality and number of Apps; maintaining simplicity and intuitiveness; improving IT administration tools including auditing, discovery and reporting; building secure connectors between the enterprise firewall and the Google cloud; and expanding accessibility across devices such as netbooks, smartphones, iPhones and iPads.