Gmail for your domain
by Tom Spilman · in General Discussion · 10/28/2006 (2:51 pm) · 7 replies
Has anyone seen this....
Google Apps for Your Domain
... basically you can redirect your email MX record to a Google gmail server and let gmail handle your me@mydomain.com email. It also supports Calendar and Talk (possibly Groups in the future).
We're looking at this as a possible replacement for how i've traditionally kept email... archived on my local machine with Outlook.
I've not used Gmail alot, so i'm shaky on taking the company this direction for email storage.
- What sort of privacy can i expect? I would be keeping confidential information from any number of individuals and companies i am working with.
- What happens when we run out of storage space? Can i export and archive the oldest content? Can i buy more storage space from Google?
I'm hoping some of you have evaluated or considered these issues before.
Google Apps for Your Domain
... basically you can redirect your email MX record to a Google gmail server and let gmail handle your me@mydomain.com email. It also supports Calendar and Talk (possibly Groups in the future).
We're looking at this as a possible replacement for how i've traditionally kept email... archived on my local machine with Outlook.
I've not used Gmail alot, so i'm shaky on taking the company this direction for email storage.
- What sort of privacy can i expect? I would be keeping confidential information from any number of individuals and companies i am working with.
- What happens when we run out of storage space? Can i export and archive the oldest content? Can i buy more storage space from Google?
I'm hoping some of you have evaluated or considered these issues before.
About the author
Tom is a programmer and co-owner of Sickhead Games, LLC.
#2
Privacy - if you want privacy with email, you better be using encryption. Don't forget that every email you send bounces through a whole slew of machines before arriving at the intendend recipiant. Any one of them can save it and read it. So you have to assume that every unencrypted email you send is readable by anyone. That's my take, anyways.
Storage space - I haven't reached that point yet and for my purposes I doubt I will, so I haven't really looked into it.
I know other people have had some issues with support, but I've been satisfied so far. YMMV.
10/28/2006 (7:50 pm)
I've been using it for a while and I quite like it. Simple to set up and use and it works almost exactly like gmail.Privacy - if you want privacy with email, you better be using encryption. Don't forget that every email you send bounces through a whole slew of machines before arriving at the intendend recipiant. Any one of them can save it and read it. So you have to assume that every unencrypted email you send is readable by anyone. That's my take, anyways.
Storage space - I haven't reached that point yet and for my purposes I doubt I will, so I haven't really looked into it.
I know other people have had some issues with support, but I've been satisfied so far. YMMV.
#3
10/28/2006 (8:24 pm)
I really think that it would be just as easy to set an Exchange, or OpenExchange server and host it all yourself.
#4
If you've done that before then maybe. With the hosted gmail you sign up, change your MX record, and start creating your email accounts. Doesn't get much easier than that and you have one less server/software package to maintain.
If you're a small company and already have a web server/web site, file server, source control, accounting, other misc. business software, development and testing machines [for multiple platforms] to maintain - besides doing any actual software development - one less server/software package to worry about is A Good Thing. [Wow - I do a lot :-)]
Again, to each his own - whatever works, works...
10/29/2006 (8:19 am)
@AndrewIf you've done that before then maybe. With the hosted gmail you sign up, change your MX record, and start creating your email accounts. Doesn't get much easier than that and you have one less server/software package to maintain.
If you're a small company and already have a web server/web site, file server, source control, accounting, other misc. business software, development and testing machines [for multiple platforms] to maintain - besides doing any actual software development - one less server/software package to worry about is A Good Thing. [Wow - I do a lot :-)]
Again, to each his own - whatever works, works...
#5
My opinion is nothing is really private, it's much, much, much, more likely that a lame user password would be hacked than someone read you mail. All your mail passes from server to server in the open, where anyone in the middle could grab it. If you need to do truly confidential business you need to using encrypted email.
--Rick
10/30/2006 (11:12 am)
Hey Tom I have used Hosted Gmail alot and love it. They have always gven me more accounts when I needed them. Have never asked for more space, because I have never had a user fill 2Gigs before. My opinion is nothing is really private, it's much, much, much, more likely that a lame user password would be hacked than someone read you mail. All your mail passes from server to server in the open, where anyone in the middle could grab it. If you need to do truly confidential business you need to using encrypted email.
--Rick
#6
I switched my personal domain over to hosted gmail and it's pretty cool so far.
My new concern is if we ever decide to switch to some other email system in the future. How would we export old mail out of the gmail system?
10/30/2006 (4:21 pm)
Thanks for the feedback guys.I switched my personal domain over to hosted gmail and it's pretty cool so far.
My new concern is if we ever decide to switch to some other email system in the future. How would we export old mail out of the gmail system?
#7
Gmail Privacy FAQ
10/30/2006 (4:33 pm)
I"m not sure how current or accurate this FAQ is, but its an interesting read. Note this is not Google's gmail FAQ, but one only concerned with privacy issues maintained by epic.org. Gmail Privacy FAQ
Torque Owner J "hplus" W
If you need privacy for contractual reasons, you cannot use any third-party mail provider; you have to use your own mail server that you have control over (and where your employees who handle back-ups, etc, are bound by a non-disclosure with your company).