5 Google Apps VPS and Dedicated Hosting Perks
Google Apps makes it easy to integrate key Google functionality with your site’s domain. It’s easy to set up on any server and adds many benefits – not least the power of Gmail. But if you’ve bought VPS hosting or a dedicated server, you might have missed some lesser known benefits of Google Apps.
Implemented correctly, Google Apps will help make your site faster, more reliable and more user-friendly.
In this article, we’ll look at five key benefits of Google Apps for VPS and dedicated users.
1. Greater Reliability
This one is pretty straightforward. One of the most common causes of server crashes and slowdowns, especially on low-memory VPS systems, is the mail server. Often, it’s down to a misconfigured account or spam attacks.
If your mailserver starts to consume excessive RAM, users won’t be able to visit your website.
By taking over email functionality, Google Apps bypasses one of the weakest points on any server: it moves all mail over to Gmail instead.
2. More Hard Drive Space
One of the key limitations of a VPS or a dedicated server is the amount of hard drive space available, especially on budget accounts.
Cheaper plans are built for speed and processing power rather than storage, so the hard drive capacity is generally lower. But some customers forget that email can take up a great of storage space, especially if multiple users trade large attachments.
Even a small email user can eat up a 40 GB hard drive quickly. This can affect reliability, and your web server can fall over.
Google offers 7 GB per user for free on Google Apps, making it a no-brainer replacement.
3. Security
If you run your own SMTP server, you’ll probably be aware of its vulnerability. SMTP is constantly under attack from wannabe spammers, viruses and other malicious forces that are looking for a mail gateway to exploit.
With Google Apps, you can actually disable the IMAP/POP3 server and the SMTP server on your VPS or dedicated box. This saves memory, improves security and ensures you have one less thing to worry about as you develop your site.
4. Support
Supporting and troubleshooting email problems can be a tremendous pain, especially when trying to offer support that’s consistent across various mobile devices.
Google makes it easier to offer support by providing a series of help pages. They cover things like setting up an iPhone to push mail or setting up Thunderbird.
Where you might find tutorials and how-tos on your IMAP server scattered and incomplete, Google has a list of guides for different purposes. This will save you time if you share or resell your server space.
5. New Features
Google Apps adds a ton of features; Google Drive, Google Calendar and more. Though these features can be obtained with a regular Google account, having them in a Google Apps account is similar to having your own private server, and the ability to brand them makes Apps very desirable.
But there are also features you can’t get with a regular Google Account, such as Google Apps Marketplace, which extends Google Apps with new features from third party developers. This marketplace is not available to regular Gmail and Google account users. Apps also adds features that would either be difficult, expensive or impossible to add otherwise: Microsoft Exchange support for mobile devices is a good example.
Should You Add Google Apps to Your Domain?
Google Apps is not for everyone. It can be fiddly to set up if you’re not technically minded. Additionally, if you like to retain independence and control, Apps isn’t for you.
But even if just fot Gmail, Google Apps is useful, and its user-friendliness may slash the amount of time you spend on training, troubleshooting and support.
Claire is a freelance technical writer and editor. She works with us through Red Robot Media, which she runs along with her associate Mathew Dixon. In addition, Claire is an accomplished musician who has toured the world with her band Printed Circuit. She lives in the United Kingdom.
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