Way back in October of 2008 I started using Zimbra (Hosted by 01.com) instead of Google Apps. At the time the reasons were based mainly about security and the lack of good syncing from Google Apps to my iPhone. I also recall the less than stellar Contact management on Google Apps.
Whats different? We first the Contact management on Google Apps/Gmail is much improved. I think it is pretty close to being on par with Zimbra, or enough to be really usable. Secondly they offer Exchange like sync to any devices such as my iPhone. With those two problems solved plus the fact that Google Apps always was a better email system I was very tempted to switch.
Another driving factor for me was I wanted to try the Nexus One (see previous posts) and having a Google Apps or Gmail account would make Android work so much better. That was probably the tipping point for the switch even though I wasn’t sure if I would continue with Android. Google Apps since it now uses Exchange sync works with many devices including both Android and iPhone.
Is there still a security issue with Google Apps, perceived or otherwise? The short answer is maybe. I think they will be good enough if I pay for the Premium account.
For years I have paid for mail forwarding services from Dyndns.org. I love it, but it is not cheap. It costs almost as much as a full year for 1 mailbox on Google Apps Premium. What I would do is route mail to my Zimbra account and to my free Gmail account so I had my mail basically in two places in case I lost any one provider. It was a bit over kill I know, but I got burned before with a regular email provider. So on top of my mail routing service I also was/am paying for Zimbra. 2gig’s of storage and iphone syncing is about $65. If I just bite the bullet and go with one host only (google apps) I can save almost $100 if I go for the free services. If I want to pay for better SLA and more space, etc I am saving 50% or $50.
Any cloud service has some security risks. I may be a bit paranoid about the whole google has my stuff issues I have so I started using Google Apps again. I first tried using it with my old Scott.ac domain and used Dyndns to route my main domain to it. I found that I really don’t think I want to continue to using the mail routing service after it expires so I setup another Google Apps account for my main domain.
I spent the past half a week uploading all my mail archives to the new account. The vast majority of my stuff is up there now and labeled and is all perfect.
It is now the first time in years that I have turned off the mail forwarding and have all my mail going to only one place. I did that as a test to see if I will be happy with this setup once the mail routing service expires. So far, so good. Knock on wood. If I am happy in 3 months than I am now I may actually buy the Premium service.