Google recently hung a ‘going out of business’ sign on its Message Continuity service for users of Microsoft Exchange. Google will continue to provide the service to its users until their contracts run out, but after that, they’re on their own.
Since the service was launched a little over a year ago, “hundreds” of businesses have subscribed to the offering, which uses Google’s cloud to provide email continuity when a Microsoft Exchange environment is interrupted for any reason.
Hundreds of users, though, can’t compete with the “millions” of businesses that have moved their entire email operation to Google Apps, so Searchzilla has decided to scrap its continuity product for Exchange and concentrate all its resources on its application suite.
Current users of the continuity product were “encouraged to consider using Google Apps as their primary messaging and collaboration platform” in a company blog written by Vice President of Product Management Dave Girouard.
The brusque departure by Google from the Exchange disaster recovery scene contrasts sharply with how it entered it:
“Google Message Continuity advances our commitment to providing rapidly deployed, cost-effective email management solutions for organizations of all sizes,” Enterprise Product Manager Matthew O’Connor wrote when the continuity product was announced.
Looking back on the announcement, it appears that Google’s “commitment” to the Exchange market was as solid as an adolescent’s commitment to the latest fad.
That’s not to say that Google’s intentions in offering an Exchange product weren’t clear from the start for careful readers of the company’s pronouncements. “Additionally, for organizations interested in eventually moving to Google Apps, Google Message Continuity can provide a smooth bridge to the cloud,” O’Connor slyly observed in his blog item.
O’Connor’s colleague, Rajen Sheth, the group product manager for Google Apps had a similar pitch at the time:
“Google Message Continuity can also help organizations transition to Google Apps down the road,” he wrote. “Since Microsoft Exchange and Gmail are always in sync with one another, there’s no need to migrate email data when eventually deploying Google Apps.”
Little did those who signed on for Google’s continuity solution realize when they did so that if they didn’t “transition” to Google Apps fast enough to suit the Ferret King, they’d be left looking for another business interruption solution within a year’s time.
Google has been criticized in the past for its flighty attitude toward product development. Some detractors maintain that Google often enters markets to be disruptive, not competitive. Like a sea gull boss, it will undercut competitors in a market and when things don’t work, abandon that market, leaving customers who had faith in the Google brand to clean up the mess.
That kind of product management may work with consumers, but it leaves something to be desired in the business world. Google’s competitor in the enterprise market, Microsoft, knows that. While the Redmond crew have suffered a few slings and arrows for sticking with products too long, their commitment to legacy products has been an important, if sometimes overlooked, part of their success in the business market.
Google’s forsaking of Message Continuity brings to mind some remarks by Microsoft Senior Director of Online Services Tom Rizzo in his famous “Google Graveyard Spooks Customers” blog written on Halloween last year:
“Google releases experimental products and tracks adoption to determine whether to continue providing them,” he wrote. “Its products are like spaghetti, Google throws them up against the wall to see if they stick.”
“The burials of de-supported products are more examples of what is convenient for Google and not good for business,” he added.
Google Deserts Exchange Users by Killing Message Continuity
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