[highlight]2016-11-15 Update – Google Apps is now called G-Suite. Other parts of this article has been updated since its original posting date of 2008-10-15.[/highlight]
Gmail has been recognized as one of the best email platforms since its launch, and its corporate email service called Google Apps G-Suite has been taking away market share from the Microsoft Exchange system for the past decade (or longer). Our corporate emails at Brixwork also rely on G-Suite. We also recommend to our clients to use Google Apps as well, since we no longer provide any type of on-server email systems for many reasons.
Most hosting companies do not provide an IMAP platform, and the most common email method is POP3. Even worse, a lot of small businesses opt to simply forward their corporate emails to their hotmail or gmail accounts and reply from those addresses. The downside of using POP3 on your hosting server is that webmail access is often cumbersome and awkward (using CUBE mail or Squirrel Mail etc.) and if you have several computers, you have to delete emails or mark them as read emails on multiple platforms, and that includes your handhelds. With an IMAP platform, however if you read the email on your computer, it will be marked as read on your iPhone as well as your webmail platform.
This is how you activate Google Apps for your domain:
- Visit gsuite.google.com.
Sign up for either the free or the Premium edition, as it fits you.G-Suite is now only offered as a paid subscription (and it’s worth it)- Verify domain ownership as per the instructions – either through a .html file upload, or a CNAME change.
- Configure the domain MX record (this is through your web hosting company).
- Configure your computer, iPhone, Android etc. as per the instructions.
- This system ensures that your email works through your own domain, not by any forwarding or other gimmicks. You’ll get a fully native email that looks like yourname@yourdomain.com.
- It also comes with a full Calendar & Contact cloud for a full email cloud solution.
- It also comes with Google Drive (which is great for teamwork and collaboration as well as record keeping)
Using this set-up, you can have IMAP access to your emails from all devices, as well as advanced gmail access if you need webmail access while you’re on the road. As a matter of fact, I find myself often using the gmail platform on my portal at http://portal.synchronous.ca (you won’t be able to log in – you must be an employee) rather than Mail on my Macbook Pro. It’s fast, easy to use, well organized, and clean.
Using the Google Apps platform, we have achieved ease of use, time saving, easy collaboration and data sharing, better synchronization, and most of all, peace of mind. It just works.
