Google now targets Lotus Notes users

Computerworld - Continuing its attempt to attract enterprise-level users, Google Inc. today unveiled a tool aimed at helping companies migrate from Lotus Notes to Google Apps.

Google said the new tool set, dubbed Google Apps Migration for Lotus Notes, can help IT managers migrate their users' Notes e-mail, calendar items and contact lists to Google's suite of hosted applications.

Chris Vander Mey, a senior product manager with Google Enterprise, said in a blog post today that the tool allows for a centrally administered migration unseen by users, who can still use the IBM collaboration system during the process. The new tool set also has an events logging feature that lets managers monitor and manage a migration across multiple Domino servers and sites, according to Vander Mey.

Google has been pushing its Apps suite toward the enterprise.

Just last week, Google announced that it was finally peeling the beta label off several Google Apps services, including Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Talk and Google Docs.

The Google Apps suite targeting businesses was launched two years ago and has been in beta ever since. Gmail has spent even more time in beta; it has worn that tag for more than five years.

Matt Glotzbach, product management director for Google Enterprise, noted in a blog post that the company took off the beta label in an effort to convince IT managers that Google Apps is ready for the enterprise.

Google has taken several other steps this year to help push Google Apps into the enterprise, coming out with offline access, as well as support for BlackBerry and Outlook users.

Read more about Cloud Computing in Computerworld's Cloud Computing Topic Center.