Google Apps is now an Exchange-replacement; Users can even keep Outlook

From Tech Republic

I’ve always thought of Google Apps as an product that’s trying to replace Microsoft Office with a simpler, cheaper, Web-based solution. However, on Tuesday Google unveiled Google Apps Sync for Microsoft Outlook, a new plug-in that allows Premier customers to access their Google Apps mail, calendar, and contacts using Microsoft Outlook, while also being able to have full Web access to all of our their data over the Web just like any other Google Apps customer.

This move changes the game. It pits Google Apps against Microsoft Exchange, the business world’s most popular email groupware platform. And, in many ways this makes a lot more sense for Google and allows the company to play to its strengths in building Internet-scale backend systems.

Exchange has been the one product the Open Source community have had problems replacing. Combine Google's Apps Sync and the trend towards cloud computing and this can result in a hit on Microsoft's Exchange revenues. Personally I think companies will continue to go for the locally hosted solution, especially in regions where bandwidth is expensive and/or unreliable.