As a goal of replacing old application hosting solution with an outsourced hosting solution for
students, the transition to Google Apps has been very productive. In general, students,
researchers and faculty are very satisfied with the variety and consistency of service offerings. It
is also best viewed as one of a suite of tools that campus IT can provide to its students and
faculty. Because of the low cost factor, Google Apps are used as a supplementary technology
and as the primary technology for any or all of its applications. The cost savings of
implementing Google Apps to replace a student application server and a desktop office suite are
huge. Although the cost is extremely competitive with some educational cloud computing, GAE
is a clear choice which is considered a success at some universities and institutions around the
world and is recommended as a complement to or a replacement for existing collaboration and
communication systems which may already be in place. Table 1 illustrates the features of GAE
as an education edition.
Table 1: Features of GAE