Google Apps FAQs

Frequently asked questions and common misconceptions about Google Apps

Cost

Is Google Apps really free?

Google Apps for Education is free – available at no charge for nonprofit educational institutions anywhere in world.

Additionally, Google Message Security – powered by Postini – is also included free for K-12 schools and districts. Google Message Security allows administrators to easily set-up and manage group email policies and create robust content filters.

If it's free, are there ads?

Google Apps is free of ads, so that faculty, staff, and students never see ads in any application – ever.

Product

What capabilities and services are included with Google Apps?

Google Apps includes Gmail – the web-based email service chosen by millions worldwide for its ease of use and reliability – and a suite of built-in collaboration and productivity solutions:

Google Calendar shared calendaring, scheduling, and meeting management

Google Docs online document, spreadsheet, presentation, and form creation and sharing

Google Sites website creation and sharing, with video, image, gadget, and document

Google Video secure, private video sharing – with 10GB of free storage

Google Apps also offers administrative tools, customer support, and access to APIs to integrate Google Apps with existing IT systems.

What if I only want to use Gmail? Or use other services within Google Apps, but not Gmail?

You can pick and choose which services in the Google Apps suite you would like to make available to your domain. You are not required to use Gmail or any other product.

How can I use Google Apps when I'm not connected to the internet?

Google Apps works with Google Gears – a built-in browser extension – to allow offline access to Google Docs, Google Calendar, and Gmail. In addition, Google Apps works with software such as Apple Mail, or Microsoft Outlook, for viewing email, contacts, or calendars on your computer.

You can also import/export any and all your documents into common formats (including Microsoft Office) or use a third party solution to sync and backup your documents on your computer.

Can I customize my email policies, and create different policies for faculty and students?

Yes. Email policies can be applied to groups of users and include limiting messages based on where they are from, where they are going, or the content they contain.

You can set up different email policies for faculty and students using Google Message Security – powered by Postini – which is now provided free for K-12 schools or districts. However, usage policy for the other services included in Google Apps remain consistent across users in your school.

Can I archive email with Google Apps?

You can archive email using Google Message Discovery, an add-on email archiving product provided by Google. While Postini-powered email security is included at no cost for K-12 schools with Google Apps, Postini email archiving Google Message Discovery is available to all educational institutions at a 66% discount from regular price.

Process

How do I sign up for Google Apps Education Edition?

If you'd like to sign up for Google Apps Education Edition, please visit the sign-up page to register.

Once you've signed up Google Apps Education Edition, you can activate your services by verifying domain ownership. For an overview of the set up process and step by step instructions, visit http://www.google.com/a/help/intl/en/admins/resources/setup.

You can sign up yourself with the above information or contact sales for additional information.

You can contact the sales team at www.google.com/a/edu

If you need help setting up your account, Google Apps offers partners that can assist you with your deployment. You can contact partners at our Enterprise Solutions Marketplace.

We would also recommend going to this site to understand a good overview of project planning to deploy Google Apps.

How to I upgrade my account to the Education Edition?

To qualify for the free Education Edition, we require that organizations meet either of the following criteria:

K-12 or higher educational institution, non-profit, accredited by a generally accepted accreditation body

U.S. non-profit organization with current 501(c)(3) status and fewer than 3,000 users.

Note: U.S. non-profit organizations with more than 3,000 users qualify for Premier Edition at only $30/user/year, a 40% discount - sign up here.

Student/alumni/parent groups, religious organizations, home schools or government bodies that are not registered as 501(c)(3) do not qualify for the Education Edition.

If you are an alumni association associated, church school or research lab associated with an accredited school, this qualifies for the Education edition. The easiest way is to sign up under a school's domain.

We're working hard to expand the availability of the Education Edition to international non-profits, so please stay tuned. In the mean time, international non-profits are welcome to sign up for Google Apps Standard Edition or Premier Edition, both currently available in many languages worldwide.

If you think your organization qualifies, please click here to upgrade your domain:

How long does it take to implement Google Apps?

On average, it takes 6 weeks to deploy Google Apps. For a general outline of project timeline, please go here. This project plan will help guide you to a successful deployment.

How many accounts can I get with Google Apps? Do I have to delete inactive users?

The number of users you can have on Google Apps Education Edition is practically limitless (as long as you aren't generating spam). You can request more user accounts via the control panel interface. In addition to that, we do not require you to delete inactive users.

Security and Privacy

How reliable is Google Apps?

Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Talk, Google Docs, and Google Sites within Google Apps Education Edition are guaranteed to be available at least 99.9% of the time, ensuring that users have reliable access.

This availability exceeds the uptime generally associated with on-premise solutions. Google shares information regarding product availability and uptime through an online Google Apps Status Dashboard so that status for these products is available at any time.

Will my data always stay within Google Apps?

Data created and stored within Google Apps is available until you remove it for as long as you maintain an active Google Apps account.

If you wish to move data in or out of Google Apps, we provide online tools to help you easily import, export, or download information from Google Docs, Google Calendar, and Google Sites. After you delete an account, we remove the data associated with that account.

Who owns the data that organizations put into Google Apps?

To put it simply, Google does not own your data. We do not take a position on whether the data belongs to the institution signing up for Apps, or the individual user (that's between the two of you), but we know it doesn't belong to us!

The data you put into our systems is yours, and we believe it should stay that way. We think that means three key things.

We won't share your data with others except as noted in our Privacy Policy.

We keep your data as long as you require us to keep it.

Finally, you should be able to take your data with you if you choose to use external services in conjunction with Google Apps or stop using our services altogether.

Where is my organization's data stored?

Your data will be stored in Google's network of data centers. Google maintains a number of geographically distributed data centers, the locations of which are kept discreet for security purposes.

Google's computing clusters are designed with resiliency and redundancy in mind, eliminating any single point of failure and minimizing the impact of common equipment failures and environmental risks.

Access to data centers is very limited to only authorized select Google employees personnel.

Legal

How does use of Google Apps affect compliance with the Child Online Privacy and Protection Act (COPPA)?

For Google Apps Education Edition used with your school domain, your school assumes the responsibility for complying with COPPA and the information that students submit.

Per the Google Apps Education Edition Agreement, any school administering Google Apps Education Edition acknowledges and agrees that it is solely responsible for compliance with COPPA, including, but not limited to, obtaining parental consent concerning collection of students' personal information used in connection with the provisioning and use of the Services by the Customer and End Users.

What about those other privacy/ protection acts I have to worry about?

Please see a user-create site regarding COPPA/ FERPA / CIPA at: http://principals.wikispaces.com/legal