Google Apps Gets Mail Migration, Dozens of New Features
This week we're adding mail migration to Google Apps, Google's web-based platform for communication and collaboration. This is one of more than 30 features and updates to the service we've rolled out since February 2007 …
Context & Ripple Effects
Mail migration closes Google Apps' biggest adoption gap: until this week, an organization or school eyeing Gmail had to weigh abandoning its existing mailbox data. The new self-service tools remove that penalty, and they land in the middle of a rapid shipping cadence — Google confirms more than 30 features and updates rolled out since February 2007, alongside smaller moves like group chat in the Google Talk gadget days earlier.
The timing matters because the attack on switching costs is two-fronted: on the same day, Google asked a federal judge to extend the Microsoft antitrust consent decree over Windows Vista concerns. Product tooling undermines Exchange lock-in from below while the legal team presses Microsoft from above. A rumored (unconfirmed) deal for telephony startup GrandCentral would round out the communications stack if real.
First-order effects
- Organizations and schools evaluating Google Apps can now adopt Gmail without leaving existing email data behind, directly lowering the cost of defection from incumbent mail servers.
- Google's pace — 30-plus updates since February 2007 — signals Apps is being run as a product line under active investment rather than a search-company side project.
Second-order effects
- Microsoft faces pressure on its Exchange and Outlook installed base from a hosted rival that keeps removing migration friction, forcing a response on hosted messaging and pricing.
- Schools and price-sensitive organizations become the beachhead market where web-based suites prove themselves before larger enterprises reconsider their email infrastructure.
Third-order effects
- If self-service migration becomes table stakes, business email shifts structurally from licensed server software sold on lock-in to hosted subscriptions won on switching convenience — with data portability the lever buyers and regulators alike will scrutinize.
The trend: Enterprise communication is migrating from on-premise licensed servers toward hosted web suites, with migration tooling — not features alone — as the decisive competitive weapon.