Google your intranet
From BEL
Contents |
The Need
I am the founder/lead tech for a community project that provides Linux/computer support for small private schools and community programs in my community. This Project is called FBK (Freedom By Knowledge). Due to the nature of the beast of the market I work with, funding is incredibly low but the need for services is high. Many of the schools and programs I work with literally have no computer/IT budget, needing all their resources for their intended purpose. In light of this, I am often searching for low/no cost hardware and solutions, most often in the form of donations.
To put it plainly, These clients computer needs boil down to two areas. An internet presence and intranet/inhouse services. Often the client needs/wants a website that allows consumers the opportunity to find information and tools that relate to the product/service they provide. On the intranet side, they are in need of email, shared calendars for scheduling, project or team collaboration, etc...
Most often, these services are met by my project's ( FBK ) use of donated computers or computers bought from sources that deal in liquidating used equipment, as servers based on Linux to provide these resources. Unfortunately, the equipment is often old and outdated (although greatly appreciated as we wouldn't have any equipment at all if not for the nice people who do donate equipment.)
Google Steps Up
Google offers a package or suite of services that offers intranet-type solutions to small projects, business, schools and non profits.
This service is called "Google Apps for Organizations" and provides the same features and services you get with your individual Google account, but tied to your business or groups own domain. Google Apps Editions
If your project is very small and hasn't got a lot of needs, you may find the "Standard" Edition which is free, will suit your needs adequately. It offers a very limited (in comparison to the other editions) number of services, essentially what you get with the personal account you sign up for, but it is still tied to your own domain and operates almost entirely 'inhouse' in that, your IM chats and calendar sharing is accessible only by users on your own domain ( such as www.myproject.com). Given that, for no cost at all, your small project can have Instant messaging with only it's users, shared calendars only for use with it's users, a customized start page (where you can replace "Google" with your project's name instead) and customize the default tools and appearance of the start page for all users. Your project can have up to 200 users (pretty cool huh?).
Another interesting aspect of the "Standard" service is the opportunity to purchase a domain name for your business, group or school if they do not already have one. One can purchase the domain name from one of Google's "partners" then have full access to the DNS tools associated to it with a seamless, integrated tool in the config menu for the Google apps. Like many such service providers, you might find that Email and other services work best with purchasing a domain name/tool from them. Otherwise, you may have to do some funky config work with MX records, etc with your independent dns service.
Google Takes it up a Notch
If you have a business that might require a bit more than the "free" option offers, there is a "Premier" Edition that notches up the services available quite a bit. It gives much more control over the usage and customization to tools and offers considerably more space and storage. This does however, come at a price. Somewhere along the lines of $50/yr per user. Premier Edition
Where Google really shines is it's approach to nonprofits and schools. They offer essentially the same service for the "Premier" Edition, but for no cost. This is a terrific option for clients such as mine who have those "non" budgets. Education Edition
How it works for FBK
As an example, I have one small school that has about 50 hosts, 2 servers (proxy, file server and a specialized library software server) and about 160 users. In order to add the services the school staff wanted, I was looking at finding and setting up at least 2 more machines for use as servers of email, IM and a webdav calendar server, maybe more. The school has about a $500 IT budget that must cover ALL computer related expenses (and that is due to a very recent fund-raiser that provided those funds, previous there were none at all.)
This creates quite a problem for the school. They want to provide the best resources for their students to be somewhat up to speed with other schools in the community, yet don't have the financial resources to make that happen. With the availability of the Google services, we will be able to provide those 'intranet' services such as email, IM and shared calendars for all students and staff as well as a small site for each classroom to post information and files for the students. In addition, the school can now provide a uniform set of tools such as word processor and document storage for every student that is accessible whether the student is in class or at home.
By using the Google services, this allows further purchases and funding to be used for improving the equipment and hardware in the school, rather than on providing services.
