Google Apps + OpenID = identity hub for SaaS

Today we announced that the Google OpenID Federated Login API has been extended to Google Apps accounts. This means that Apps users can now securely sign in to third party websites using their Google Apps user account, without sharing their credentials with third parties.

Additionally, Google apps can now become an identity hub for multiple SaaS providers. Partners such as Ping Identity and Manymoon.com have been among the early adopters of the Google OpenID Federated Login API, and we're excited about the opportunity this provides to others.

To learn more, read our post on the Google Code Blog, or join the discussions in the Google Federated Login API Group.

The OpenID Federated Login Service is available for all Google Apps editions. However, it is disabled by default for the Premier and Education editions, and it requires the domain administrator to manually enable it from the Control Panel. Learn how to enable it for an individual domain.

Live Webinar: Resellers Share Their Experiences

This Wednesday Sheepdog and Dito, two of our early Google Apps Authorized Resellers, will join us live to share their experiences with the reseller program. Learn about the challenges they've faced, how the program has positively impacted their businesses, and best practices for acquiring new customers.

Live Webinar: Resellers Share Their Experiences
Wednesday, July 29
10 am PDT, 1 pm EDT
Register

New! Google Apps Migration for Lotus Notes

Switching to Google Apps from Lotus Notes just got easier. Today we released a new tool, Google Apps Migration for Lotus Notes, that migrates mail, calendar and contacts quickly and easily. The tool is a native Notes application and its many features make it a simple and complete way to quickly switch your customers to Google Apps.

Google partner CapGemini used the tool to migrate Valeo, an automotive supplier with 30,000 employees. As CapGemini IT Project Lead Philippe Bonnemains says, "We used it for Valeo and for several other enterprise customers. Google Apps Migration for Lotus Notes is clearly a great solution for Notes-based companies that want to quickly and efficiently provide users with continuity of mail archives, contacts and calendars, while moving to Google Apps."

More and more customers like Fairchild Semiconductor, Hamilton Beach, JohnsonDiversey and Valeo are migrating their users from Lotus Notes to Google Apps. To learn more about our new migration tool and how to position Google Apps to Lotus Notes users, join our Master Seller Webinar this Thursday.

Position Apps to Lotus Notes Users
Thursday, July 16, 2009
10:00 am PDT, 1:00 pm EDT
Register

Until then, you can learn more about the tool in our Lotus Notes resource center and see how it works in this short video:

New! Google Apps is Out of Beta

This year we've focused on making it as easy as possible for large enterprises to switch to Google by launching new features and removing key barriers to adoption. Today, we're taking this one step further. Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Docs and Google Talk are now out of beta, alleviating doubt that Apps is a mature product suite.

We're also continuing to implement procedures that offer our Apps customers even greater reliability. These include live replication of data to other locations for near-instant disaster recovery, and special handling of business users' data in our data center operations.

Finally, in the coming weeks we'll be launching email delegation and retention to help companies manage email and comply with industry regulations. Both features are in testing and will be rolled out to Premier Edition customers as soon as they're ready.

All of these new features together highlight that now is the time to switch to Google Apps. To make it easier for enterprise IT managers to access tools and learn more about switching, we've built out resource centers for Microsoft Exchange and Lotus Notes. Take a look to see how we're positioning Apps to these two key audiences. For more details on the new launches, read our post on the Official Google Enterprise Blog.