Many businesses have had their share of troubles while using Microsoft Exchange to meet their mail and messaging requirements.

Google has taken a step to provide such a service to its users. On the premise that Microsoft Outlook is one of the most used e-mail client and the Gmail being so popular, Google has launched a tool that integrates the two, making it possible for users to synchronize data in Microsoft Outlook with Google Apps. With Google Apps Sync for Microsoft Outlook, you can retain Microsoft Outlook as the client while using Gmail as your messaging service. This feature is available feature is available with the Google Apps Premier and Education editions.

The solution continues to provide reliability and security without changing the way an employee works. Google Apps Sync for Microsoft Outlook is a plug-in for Outlook 2003 and 2007 that synchronizes e-mail, calendar, and contacts data with Google Apps. It provides access to Global Address List data and enables users to schedule meetings by looking up when attendees are free or busy.

Those who use the IMAP protocol to sync e-mails can also benefit from this tool. It also uses an efficient e-mail synchronization protocol, originally used in Offline Gmail.

The following Outlook features will not be synchronized by Google Apps Sync for Microsoft Outlook: User delegation, Public folders, Syncing of notes, Tasks ,Journals, Distribution lists.