July 22, 2011 — Web hosting provider ZNet announced on Friday that it is now an authorized reseller of the Google Apps suite of communication and collaboration tools. This news comes a week after ZNet announced it now offers SmarterTools products to its customers.

Google Could Drive Mobile Two-Factor Authentication Model Google’s announcement this week that it will offer two-factor authentication for Google Apps is an encouraging sign for the state of multifactor authentication in the cloud — particularly using the mobile form factor, which some believe could overcome some of the challenges that have plagued multifactor deployments in the past. The search engine giant’s new two-factor approach sends a verification code via SMS message or mobile app to augment the traditional username and password sign-in.

Google Gears Up for Government Work Google has rolled out a government edition of its online application suite. Data for Gmail and Google Calendar produced in Google Apps for Government is stored in a segregated system that’s reserved exclusively for government agencies. Google Apps has also won FISMA certification, a standard for federal information security

Can Google Apps Supplant Microsoft Exchange? Google has made it one of its many missions to woo users away from Microsoft Exchange in favor of its Google Apps cloud computing offerings for communications like e-mail, messaging, calendar, contacts and collaboration.

I recently switched my email to Google Apps, which provides the benefits of Gmail while still letting you use your own domain name. I’m glad I did it, although I had to overlook privacy concerns and Google’s idiosyncratic technology choices.

Microsoft’s cloud-enabled Office 2010 set to join battle with Google Next month, Microsoft Corp. will release Office 2010 into an IT world that Google Inc. has been reshaping as use of its Google Apps services has spread to organizations like the Los Angeles city government and Genentech Inc

Global CIO: Google, At Last, Goes For Microsoft’s Throat I like Google so much better now that’s it’s going for the jugular. This week brings more proof that Google’s intent on grabbing from Microsoft some of the money companies will spend on collaboration software for their employees. Specifically, it has created a tool for migrating e-mail off Microsoft Exchange and onto Google Apps