Google gives Exchange users an easy way out

Google Apps Migration for Microsoft Exchange intended to make migrations easy and efficient

Often, when it comes to Google and Microsoft, we've come to expect the latter to employ the most aggressive tactics in an effort to topple the former's dominance. But that's only for search; when it comes to server-side products in the enterprise, Microsoft is a clear leader.

That's why Google today is launching Google Apps Migration for Microsoft Exchange, a new server-side tool that migrates a company's email, calendar, and contact data from Microsoft Exchange to Google Apps.

"Until now, we didn't have a great solution for getting your data out of Exchange," said Chris Vander Mey, a Google Apps senior product manager. "This gives Google Apps administrators more control, more speed and a better experience for their end users."

Heralding it as the easiest, fastest, and least painful migration strategy, Google's new tool is now freely available for companies that sign up for the Premier or Education editions of Apps. Clients can choose from any combination of mail, calendar, and contact data to move, and the transfers can be carried out in phases. Not only can hundreds of years be migrated at once, but users can also continue using Exchange during the transfer.

To give potential clients a push in the right direction, Google has even setup a Switch from Microsoft Exchange Web page detailing all the advantages to making the jump. Among its best arguments, Google says it provides real-time collaboration tools for free, built-in Google search, and reliably scalable cloud server.

Google already offered a similar tool for migrating from IBM's Lotus Notes/Domino to Google Apps.