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Google Vault is a great product, and provides that extra piece of mind for companies looking to retain an archive of docs and emails. The nature of Cloud Computing means access anywhere, this adds a few more risks in terms of data security and control of that data.

“Increasingly, litigation is about the documents you have and the documents you don’t have,” explains Google SVP and general counsel Kent Walker in a video. “So a good record keeping system and a good way of archiving those records allow you to be sure of what you’ve got and sure of what you don’t have.”
Walker describes Google Apps Vault as a dashboard that allows companies to evaluate all the relevant documents that might pertain to litigation and to respond to legal requirements more easily.

Google Apps Vault, “gives you the ability to search across your apps domain in a fully audited process,” explained Jack Halprin, head of enterprise e-discovery for Google, in a phone interview.

The service, Halprin said, has three main capabilities: It can archive documents; it can enforce and apply document and data retention policies; and it can perform e-discovery, locking litigation-relevant data down as needed.

Filed under: Cloud Assist, Google Apps, Google Apps for Business, Google Vault by Google Apps Guru

Google Docs has updated its spell check engine and it seems that it’s now using Google’s web spell check service, the same one used in Google Search and more recently in Google Chrome.

Google has quietly rolled out the feature, but it seems to be enabled for all users or is in the process of being rolled out.

Previously, the Google Docs document editor used a simple dictionary-based spell-checking feature. Any words that weren’t found in the dictionary were underlined as spelling errors.

This could mean any names, technical terms, even things like “isn’t.” It was a rough tool that needed a lot of handholding, i.e. “add to dictionary” to work.

The new spell check system is a great upgrade though for a couple of reasons. For one, it relies on the Google spell-check online service which is a lot more accurate than any dictionary method.

Instantly, you should notice a lot less false positives, zero in most cases. But this is only half the update, the new spell-checking system also looks at context, it’s now a grammar checker as well. For example, it can detect whether you meant “its” or “it’s” based on the context.

This makes the new system a huge improvement over the previous one. It should also make it a much more useful tool to Google Docs users.

That said, it’s still nowhere near on par with more established tools. For one, docs doesn’t make any distinction between spelling and grammar errors, i.e. different colors for the underline.

What’s more, while spelling false positives may be gone, there seem to plenty of them for the grammar checker. When it works, the grammar checker can be quite useful, but when it fails, and it seems to be failing more often than not, it’s annoying.

Granted, this is just the first iteration of the feature and it may only be a test. The implementation will get better in time and so will the quality of the suggestions.

Filed under: Cloud Assist, Cloud Strategy, Google Apps, Google Apps for Business by Google Apps Guru

Information Governance

Google Apps Vault allows you to reduce risks and costs associated with litigation, investigation, and compliance audits. For an additional $5/user/month, you can add capabilities to Google Apps that help prepare your business for these situations.

Archive and manage in place

A single archive for Gmail and on-the-record chat messages, built on Gmail, where the data is managed in-place. Governance policies are applied directly to the native data store, eliminating the need to duplicate data in a separate archive and helping to reduce the risks associated with data movement and from spoliation. A robust audit trail provides complete visibility across the archive.

Retain business documents

Email and chat retention policies allow businesses to define standard retention policies for Gmail and on-the-record chat messages based on content, labels, and metadata. Once a message reaches the end of the retention period, Google Apps Vault automates compliance with the retention policies. The automated enforcement of policies, as well as legal holds, reduces the risks of spoliation and noncompliance. The legal hold functionality helps ensure email and chat messages can be preserved beyond their standard retention period for a litigation or an investigation.

Find relevant documents

eDiscovery tools allow authorized users to search across the domain for data that may be relevant to a specific matter or investigation. Google search algorithms can search domain wide, across large amounts of email in the archive and quickly return results. Authorized users can define and manage collections of message search results and collaborate with others to manage them. Email can be exported for further review and processing.

Designed for security

Google Apps Vault is designed for security and reliability with features like encrypted connections to Google’s servers, redundant backup, built-in disaster recovery and sharing controls that let your users collaborate securely on matters. Learn more about security.

Filed under: Cloud Assist, Google Apps, Google Apps for Business, Google Message Discovery by Google Apps Guru

Cut and paste is great, but for some purposes, it’s a tool of last resort. Gmail makes it much simpler to save your messages as documents and PDFs, keeping formatting intact. Here’s how to do it:

1. Log in to Gmail.
2. Click the gear-shaped icon near the top right, then select Settings.
3. Click the Labs tab near the top center.
4. Scroll down and click Enable next to Create a Document.
   Step 4: Select Create a Document.

   (Credit: Screenshot by Rob Lightner/CNET)

5. Scroll to the top or bottom and click the button labeled Save Changes.
6. The next time you want to save a message as a doc, just click the More button in the top center of the message reading pane, then select Create a document.
7. A new tab opens in Google Docs. From here, it’s easy to edit, save, and export as a PDF or some other file format.

That’s it! This feature is incredibly handy for tackling invites, e-mailed schedules, and all sorts of other problems that cutting and pasting just can’t solve.

Filed under: Google Apps, Google Apps for Business by Google Apps Guru

This is a call out to all developers who are working on Applications for Google Apps (available in Google Apps Marketplace).

We’ve noticed very few apps which are actually being developed with the end users billing needs in mind. During deployments we find a large number of organisations are departmentalised, which causes a couple issues when these organisations roll out Google Apps.

• unable to fully control / limit access to apps
• licensing conflicts and inability to limit numbers
• unnecessary cost

In the Google Apps control panel you have the ability to control which organisations can access which enabled applications – see below, but very few apps go beyond that. Its either a one for all or nothing at all.

Finer grained control of access would suit organisations who have a multi-domain setup, or as mentioned before, a very department orientated structure. Currently you can limit it so your Sales team could have access to TripIt, while your development don’t, but when it comes to paid for apps (which normally have a licensing model based on domain user count) there normally isn’t an option to restrict the use of that app.

Apps normally look at total users and assume that they will all use that app. We realise this is an easy win, in terms of income for app creators, but it doesn’t help some of those larger organisations of 5000+ employees, where the per user / month or year really does add to the bottom line.

Boost eLearning, provide the functionality that we would like to see more app creators adopt. They allow you to choose which users in your domain can actually use the app in question. This allows you to have greater flexibility in deciding which users to include.

We feel that app creators would likely see an increase in the uptake of their apps because of this functionality. Those looking for apps are often put off by the end cost, when they are only looking for a small number of licenses.

 

 

Filed under: Boost eLearning, Cloud Assist, Cloud Strategy, Google Apps for Business, Superior Support, Technology by Google Apps Guru

Twitter has admitted harvesting contact lists from its customers’ mobile phone address books without telling them.

The website said it copied lists of  email addresses and phone numbers from those who used its smartphone application, amid claims it kept them on its database for 18 months.

Its management yesterday agreed to change guidance to users about what it does with their personal information, after a storm of protest from privacy campaigners in the U.S.

The breach occurs when users of the micro-blogging site click the ‘Find Friends’ option to see if any of their contacts are also on it.

Many of them did not know this meant the site then uploaded their entire address book and stored it afterwards.

Twitter spokesman Carolyn Penner said it would now offer users the option to ‘upload your address book’ or ‘import your contacts’ to make it clearer.

She said: ‘We want to be clear and transparent in our communications with users. Along those lines, in our next app updates, which are coming soon, we are updating the language associated with Find Friends – to be more explicit.’

The practice by a giant such as Twitter raises more concerns about the privacy implications posed by social networking sites which are used by an estimated 37million Britons

Filed under: Tech News, Technology by Google Apps Guru

Everything I hear or read in relation to the ongoing battle between Microsoft (MS) and Google on their cloud strategies indicates that Microsoft is terrified of losing its MS customers. They are terrified of change and of giving the users the “right” to choose.

Google have been working hard to provide an alternative to everything MS offer. They are not trying to copy Microsoft. Just because Microsoft have been around longer, and have embedded themselves in the business space for so long, doesn’t mean its actually the most productive way to do things. Look at the mobile market for instance. A few years ago, pretty much everyone had a Nokia, with snake, and loved it. Today the proliferation of mobile adoption has given us, the consumers, a wider choice. We use Macbooks, notebooks, tablets and mobile phones, we don’t like to be tied down, or told what to do.

For those of you who are about to upgrade your Exchange servers, or Office versions, you should take a really close look at your enterprise agreements. They will lock you in for as long as they can, and the cloud solutions they are offering are really not cloud technology. Roll your minds back to the restrictive nature of the terminal client system architecture.

Ask MS what happens if you want to move to another billing plan on their Office 365 system…its a massive effort…

Can you edit documents online, in real time with people all over the world? Isn’t it time for a change? When Office 15 and Windows 8 come out, you’re in for massive change anyway. Its time to break the shackles of MS and move to something new and fresh. There is a lot of misinformation out there, a lot of scare tactics, don’t believe it all.

These are my thoughts alone, just from what i’ve seen and heard.

Neil Rutherfoord

Filed under: Cloud Assist, Cloud Computing, Google Apps for Business by Neil Rutherfoord

Unlike my blogger peers, I'm not usually wont to skewer a so-called scoop. And I won't start doing so, but I will point out that two intriguing pieces in the The Wall Street Journal came off as old news, warmed over instead of hot stuff. First is this piece about the Google cloud storage drive--something first unveiled over five years ago:

Drive allows people to store photos, documents and videos on Google's servers so that they could be accessible from any Web-connected device and allows them to easily share the files with others, these people said. If a person wants to email a video shot from a smartphone, for instance, he can upload it to the Web through the Drive mobile app and email people a link to the video rather than a bulky file.

I guess the news is that it is coming in weeks or months. I'm thinking that this will provide some interesting competition for Dropbox and Box.net, especially if the service is free for most consumers and businesses. Next up is a more recent development. The Journal noted that Google is building a home entertainment system that streams music through the home, using WiFi. Now I know for a fact that this is no shocker. I attended the same Google I/O show at the Moscone Center last May and saw Google's streaming music system for the home in action. Heck, Silicon Filter nails the point in its headline here: Then it was called Android@Home because, well, it consisted of Android-powered devices in the home. It may start with stereo systems, but Google anticipates powering lights and thermostats and household appliances, such as dish washers and refrigerators. The thing that's interesting about the Journal's story, and this is what makes it a mini-scoop, is that Google will supposedly market the system under its own brand. That's interesting; Google makes Android, but co-brands only pure Google experience phones. Some think this is the same device, compared to Sonos systems, that Google lodged a patent request for with the FCC last year. This brings me to my next point: You didn't think Fiber was just a speedy broadband test did you? Well, it is, but if it works as Google hopes it will, it will be used to power devices such as the streaming music server in users' homes. The streaming music server would be fueled, of course, by Google Music, with perhaps an assist from Sirius. Google wants to own the user experience, from desktop to mobile and back to the home, from Google TV and the music system to household appliances. All of these would be controlled and accessed by smartphones and tablets. This streaming appliance could launch later this year, which in my mind would make a late June launch at Google I/0 a distinct possibility. I expect Google Drive sooner. How about you?

Filed under: Google Apps, Google Apps for Business, Google Apps Tips, Hello, Android, Tech News by Google Watch dot com (RSS Source)

There is a long-held belief that the majority of Google App customers are small mom-and-pop shops, ranging between two and 10 employees.

Technically, that is true of the 4 million-plus businesses using Google Apps. However, there are more companies of scale using Apps than you might think, according to a new analysis by Backupify.

While 53 percent of Apps domains are comprised of 10 seats or fewer, the software as a service (SaaS) storage company said nearly 40 percent of all of Apps seats are used by businesses with more than 10,000 employees (once you remove educational institution seats).

In fact, this chart notes that 94 percent of Apps seats are used by 15 percent of Google’s Apps customers:

How did Backupify come by its data? The company explained:

 

Over 8,000 businesses have signed up for a trial of our Google Apps backup product, or Snapshot–our Google Apps account download tool. When someone signs up for a trial, one of the pieces of information Google sends us over the API is the total number of seats on the domain (which we use for capacity planning).

Of course, large business is a relative term. Most people don’t consider a business with 10,000 seats to be large, but medium.

Certainly, a bank such as Spain’s BBVA, wouldn’t look at 10,000 users as a big business. BBVA, which Google landed as its largest Apps contract to date, boasts 110,000 employees, most of whom will be move to Apps this year.

Now that’s a big business!

Filed under: Cloud Assist, Google Apps, Google Apps for Business by Google Apps Guru

Could Google Glasses one day join Google Goggles in the pantheon of the company's popular products? Perhaps. But, please, enough p-words. 9to5 Google said Google is building special glasses that look like Oakley's Thump MP3 sunglasses that actually have the computing firepower and features of today's high-end smartphones: That means voice input, output and a navigation system on board. There is a display with a computer interface and control buttons, but while a smartphone is a super communicator, Google envisions augmented reality that leverages Google's location services, said 9-to-5Google:

A user can walk around with information popping up and into display Terminator-style based on preferences, location and Google's information. Therefore, these things likely connect to the Internet and have GPS. They also likely run a version of Android. These glasses, we heard, have a front-facing camera used to gather information and could aid in augmented-reality apps. It will also take pictures. The spied prototype has a flash--perhaps for help at night, or maybe it is just a way to take better photos. The camera is extremely small and likely only a few megapixels.

Maybe it's the sci-fi geek in me thinking--I do love me some Terminator--but these glasses sound great. I can imagine taking these into a store, looking at stuff, learning prices and then clicking to buy something, all from the glasses. I imagine this is a throw-it-against-the-wall product, a new form factor for a smartphone. Will Google sell them? How much? What augmented-reality apps might we see? I ask because the 2012 CES was loaded with this kind of stuff (see Natalia SmartGoggles) and there's like no market for it. None. So maybe it will stay a prototype in Google X labs, or be relegated to hobbyists. We'll know more after the beta program, so long as the beta program involves people who aren't geeks/hobbyists. Sign me up!

Filed under: Google Apps, Google Apps for Business, Google Apps Tips, Google X, Tech News by Google Watch dot com (RSS Source)