Google uses e-mail upgrades to attract more corporate customers
SAN FRANCISCO: Google is improving its corporate e-mail service by adding new security tools and more than doubling the storage capacity of e-mailboxes, underscoring the online search leaders ambition to enlarge its role in the business software market.
The changes, scheduled to be unveiled Wednesday, mark Googles first attempt to capitalize on the technology that it picked up in its recently completed $625 million acquisition of the e-mail security specialist Postini.
Google also is courting Postinis existing customers as it tries to create more interest in a suite of online software applications that costs each user $50 annually.
The roughly 36,000 businesses already using Postini products can get the software bundle, which includes word processing, spreadsheet and other programs besides e-mail, free through June 2008.
After the free trial expires, Google hopes to retain as customers many of those businesses, which include more than 11 million individual users.
To make its corporate e-mail product even more enticing, Google has boosted the storage capacity of each individual mailbox to 25 gigabytes, up from 10 gigabytes.
The storage capacity of individual accounts with Googles free e-mail service, known as Gmail, will remain at just under three gigabytes.
Founded in 1999, Postini provides tools that insulate e-mail from viruses and spam, recover lost data and ensure that employees sending and receiving messages do not violate company policies.
Google bought Postini largely to address concerns that its corporate e-mail service lacked adequate security and compliance measures.
Tom Austin, an analyst with Gartner, a research firm, said the Wednesday upgrade was a reminder of how serious Google is in its crusade to sell business on the notion of using low-priced online software instead of installing programs on the hard drives of individual computers.
“Google is really trying to shake up the assumptions of people and move the industry to an entirely different model,” Austin said.
Googles expansion into business software, begun last year, looms as a threat to Microsoft, which derives much of its profit from the sale of its more expensive Office suite of software applications as well as its e-mail programs.
Yahoo last month signaled its possible interest in joining the fray by announcing plans to buy the Zimbra e-mail service for $350 million.
Microsoft also is rolling out online options to appeal to customers seeking alternatives.
Googles expansion into business software has not had a significant impact so far, having accounted for less than 1 percent of the companys $7.5 billion in revenue through the first half of this year.
