Is Exchange Out Of Vogue?

A few weeks ago, I moved my email services to Google Apps.

My main motivation was I wanted to find a good alternative to an Exchange Server. Since I left corporate America a few months ago, I have missed the synchronization that an Exchange Server provides. I can't justify the costs of one, so I needed an alternative.

Google Apps provides free email hosting for up to 100 email accounts on your domain. You can petition for more without paying extra. The shared calendars are pretty cool, too. Recently, they added IMAP support which allows the users to have their email in their favorite email desktop client sync with the Google Gmail interface... so you can have the best of both.

If you are used to the way that your client handles email in a POP3 or Exchange environment, it takes a little getting used to (for example, you can't hit delete in Outlook, you have to drag and drop to the trash and identifying something as spam or not as spam is a little more complicated). But, once you get used to it, it works really well. One of the things that I really didn't like very much was that I couldn't synchronize my calendar. I still prefer to use Outlook for my email. I do because it is so well used. But, I really like the idea of having a web interface to modify my calendar.

Yesterday, Google released a little app for windows that allows the synchronization to work. It is pretty cool. I set it up and, in no time, my Outlook calendar was in sync with my Google Calendar. I think that Google has a long way to go to replace Exchange. There are still many services that Exchange can do that Google can't. However, having worked in Corporate America, I tend to think that for the features that the majority of users utilize Exchange for, Google is a better choice for a better price. Now, you might be interested in how to set up your Google Calendar to share with Outlook.

So, here are some instructions: If you don't have a Google account, you need to set one up first from here. Or, better yet, just move your email to their service from Google Apps.

1. First, you download Google Calendar Sync from: http://dl.google.com/googlecalendarsync/GoogleCalendarSync_Installer.exe

2. Simply save the file to your desktop so that you can find it later.

3. You'll have to agree to the terms and conditions.

4. Read through the Google Calendar Sync Terms of Service, and click “I Agree.”

5. Continue to follow through the Installation Options and click “Install” to finish the set-up process. When you have Google Calendar Sync is installed on your computer, the Google Calendar Sync Settings window will appear:

Simply enter your settings and hit save.

It should take care of the rest for you. Now, I haven't tried every permutation of how your calendar can be set up, but I didn't have one problem.

Here's the best part. I can manage my calendar in Outlook, but share it via Google to other's on the web. Microsoft, eat your heart out.