Google Apps Sync For Microsoft Outlook - What's the Catch?

Google Apps Premier is amazing, there is no question.removed from Outlook.
Even if you only use it for email, you are making theThe length of time to migrate data from Microsoft
right move. Don't believe me? Try it for yourself. TheyExchange should also be taken into consideration. The
offer Premier Edition free for 30 days. That said, thereinitial sync of a few Outlook items will happen very
are also a number of nuances that exist which mightquickly, but as most mailboxes have grown fairly large
either be a deal breaker or at least give you abefore a migration, it can take many hours for all of
headache if you are migrating from Microsoftthe data to upload to Google. A recent migration
Exchange. At least if you aren't warned about theminvolving a laptop user with a 1GB mailbox took over
ahead of time.six hours when using their home internet connection. If
You are provided a tool called Google Apps Sync foryou close Outlook, the synchronization will stop, but it
Microsoft Outlook. This tool is very good and will keepwill resume the next time Outlook is opened.
everything in sync between Apps and Outlook.Some of these limits or numbers could change with
Everything, of course, except Journal, Notes, andfuture versions of, but as of writing they are current.
Tasks. Are these a big deal? For some they are. ForLast thing to check is the default profile for Outlook.
others, they aren't. That one is up to you.Likely, Outlook was set to always use a particular, or
What about the synchronization schedule?only, profile before installing Google Apps Sync for
Here is the breakdown:Microsoft Outlook. Now you will have a second profile.
Email is synchronized every minute.To make things easy for the end user, you will likely
Calendar is synchronized immediately after you createwant to set the default Outlook profile to the newly
or receive an invitation, otherwise, every 10 minutes.created Google profile.
Contacts is synchronized every 20 minutes.The list is certainly longer than my above observations
Global address list is synchronized every 24 hours.but this should give you some things to consider and
How about the size limitation of the datawill definitely save you time! My recommendation is if
synchronized? By default, and easily changed, Googleyour organization is looking to migrate to Google Apps,
Apps Sync for Outlook will only sync the most recentmake sure you work with a competent and
1GB of data from Google Apps. Once the 1GBexperienced Google Apps Solution Provider to avoid
threshold is reached, the oldest items will be removedbeing blindsided by the above and other issues.
from Outlook. They will remain in Apps and are only