My blog on Cloud Hypermarket today focussed on the brand familiarity of cloud products and their positive and negative effects on sales. Simply put, amongst IT professionals and enthusiasts, Google seems to be the choice. The popular (and more importantly free/cheap) alternative to Microsoft, who have simply found themselves out of favour with many enthusiasts and professionals, after many years of market domination. For a while now, many of us have utilised alternatives to Microsoft offerings, from Firefox through Ubuntu and Linux. When Google first arrived on the search engine market it quickly became dominant and has since gone from strength to strength as it has tackled Microsoft to roars of applause in many corners.

Apart from simply being a brand other than Microsoft, the reason Google Apps has done so well (in my opinion) seems to be based on four main factors. Firstly, through providing the search engine that the majority of users engage with, they have created an attractive name, moving business systems to the cloud is safe insofar as business consumers can be comfortable in the knowledge that Google is an important and stable brand, it won’t be going out of business any time soon – the longevity of business data is assured.

Secondly, through the liberal provision of free apps, consumers, especially those in the know, have become familiar with Google products, learned how to use them and do so regularly in a domestic capacity. Through using the products for free at home, IT professionals have come to understand the ‘logic’ employed by Google. Similar to the way Apple have approached their software, Google software is intuitive and logical. It is easy to use and this is attractive to consumers.

Thirdly, it is cheap. In the war against Microsoft, Google have positioned themselves financially to be majorly attractive. This is appealing to all businesses – however more so to start ups and small businesses. The most important thing to remember about Google Apps Premier is that you will be paying the same for it, per user, as the multinationals. Huge companies are not getting their bulk discount and (another) added edge over your small business.

Finally, they beat Microsoft to the punch (which may be a good or bad thing). Whilst Microsoft partners were installing Exchange servers, Google were already offering the brave new world of cloud computing and because of the way it is charged, it was remarkably attractive to many companies. I’ve spoken to many IT managers who moved across to Google Apps a long time before Microsoft decided they were ‘all in’.

For small and start-up companies, Google Apps is a remarkably attractive package. As long as you don’t have data storage requirements, such as knowing where your data is stored, or keeping it within the EU – something Google has not yet addressed – you can save money and enjoy the backed up, available anytime, anywhere suite of office apps. A solution used by some of the biggest companies in the world and available to your company to pay for on a monthly basis, at the same price per user. Compare BPOS vendors on Cloud Hypermarket if you are thinking about migrating to a cloud-based platform you can Hypermarket.