Google Apps: Mastering Integration and Customization
Copyright ; 2011 Packt Publishing
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First published: September 2011
Production Reference: 1070911
Published by Packt Publishing Ltd. Livery Place 35 Livery Street Birmingham B3 2PB, UK.
ISBN 978-1-849692-16-8
www.packtpub.com
Cover Image by Vinayak Chittar ( <>
)
This is an English translation of "Integrer Google Apps dans le SI" which was published in French language by Dunod, Paris.
Credits
Authors
Mdric Morel
Manuel Alves
Pascal Cadet
Pirmin Lemberger
Acquisition Editor
Rashmi Phadnis
Technical Editor
Ajay Shanker
Project Coordinator
Alka Nayak
Proofreader
Aaron Nash
Indexer
Monica Ajmera Mehta
Graphics
Nilesh Mohite
Valentina D'silva
Production Coordinator
Shantanu Zagade
Cover Work
Shantanu Zagade
About the Authors
Mdric Morel is Director of the practice "Enterprise Architecture" at Alcyonix.
Manuel Alves is the Alcyonix Manager at Paris.
Pirmin Lemberger is the Consultant in charge of R & D at Alcyonix.
Pascal Cadet is Alcyonix Manager at Geneva.
The authors would first of all like to thank their wives for their patience and continuous encouragement during the writing of the book. Their gratitude also goes to Yahya El Mir, Julien Mriaudeau, respectively CEO and chairman of the SQLI Group who sponsored the project. They thank their colleagues, friends, and customers who were kind enough to read the book and provide their feedback. In an alphabetical order: Thierry Albain, Arnaud Deslandes, Arnaud Damme, Gilles Godart, Olivier Larribe, Charles Le Gallic, David Macchioni, Jean-Luc Raffaelli, J.Patterson Waltz. Finally, special thanks go to Pascal Pignon, Regional Channel Manager for Southern Europe at Google who has consistently supported this project since the beginning and, in fact, made it possible.
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Preface
The Google Apps platform has been available for three years now and to this day it remains one of the most significant offerings in the domain of Cloud Computing. In the beginning, the offer was focused mainly on the messaging and calendar tools but it quickly gained momentum and now it covers most features one can expect from an office suite. Its use within corporate information systems is becoming increasingly popular and over 3 million companies are using it worldwide, ranging from the small businesses to multinational companies and administrations. The SQLI Group was among the pioneering companies, adopting the Google Apps as early as 2008. The set of services was soon recognized as a great collaboration tool among SQLI collaborators. This book summarizes the experience gathered by the authors as well as the feedback gained from numerous integration projects led by SQLI with different customers.
This book touches upon both practical issues regarding the implementation of Google Apps and more theoretical concerns like the impact of Cloud Computing on the IT environment. The major technical questions that will be raised when deploying a Cloud Computing solution are addressed as well, especially those regarding integration with an existing identity management system.
Who should read this book?
This book is intended for anyone who will take part in the process of adopting or deploying the Google Apps solution in a professional setting. More specifically, this book is for:
- Senior executives who would like to understand what is at stake on the economic level and which issues are related to implementation of a Cloud Computing solution in their own company.
- Project managers , who will get acquainted with the concepts and the specific vocabulary used during such a project.
- Architects and developers , who will find useful technical guidance and recommendations that were gathered over the course of numerous projects. They will find many valuable hints on how to integrate Google Apps more closely in their own IT infrastructure.
- Regular users who will find useful tips to make their lives easier and increase their productivity.
How to read this book
This book is split into four parts that are mostly independent from one another and can thus be read in any order. The reader who is in a hurry and is already familiar with the subject can therefore quickly jump to the section that is of direct relevance to him or her. The more patient reader will benefit from reading the Part 1 sets the scene and covers the basics of Cloud Computing and its consequences for the IT Department. The following figure illustrates how the book is organized:
The Google Apps Context
Part 1 introduces the concepts of Cloud Computing and its various incarnations: IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS. Security and privacy issues are also touched upon. Senior executives are more likely to be interested in this section.