We tested the Premier edition of Google Apps, an upgrade from the standard edition that is free until the end of the month, and found it adequately provides a place where users can manage their own schedules, store and share data, and collaborate with co-workers.

But the lack of administrative control and security measures that IT execs are accustomed to make Google’s hosted suite of applications unsuited for deployment beyond specialized or distributed workgroups.

To get started, organizations need to provide Google with an Internet domain name – either an existing one or a new, dedicated one. IT would maintain control over the domain name and the DNS records. Web-based administration of Google Apps can be conducted using either Firefox or Internet Explorer.

The domain is the container for all user accounts. There is no technical limitation on the number of users you can have in a domain.

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There are no other groupings of users from an administrative standpoint, nor is there any privilege hierarchy. You can create additional domain aliases (such as company.com, company.net and company.org) and link them, so they function as one domain inside of Google Apps.

Creating users requires four pieces of information: first name, last name, user name and password. You can’t store additional attributes, such as title, phone number, location or workgroup. Individual Google Apps programs do allow for some additional attributes, such as a picture, but users control those application-specific attributes.

Google provides a tool for creating users in bulk. A text file containing user information can be uploaded and hundreds of new users churned out very quickly. You cannot delete or suspend users using this bulk-load tool.

Click to see: Screen shot of Google Users

Google doesn’t offer any granularity when setting user permissions. An account either has user privileges or administrator privileges and every administrator has free reign over all aspects of the domain.

Password control is very limited. While an administrator can expire a password immediately, forcing a password change at the next logon, it cannot be expired by a predetermined date. If your company needs any control over password use, you should use the Provisioning API that Google provides. This XML-based API lets administrators write a script that can automatically create or modify accounts as they are changed in your local system. This will take some work to set up, depending on your local systems, but it will allow for much tighter control of the accounts and passwords within your Google domain.

COLLABORATION AND OFFICE PRODUCTIVITY GOOGLE APPS PREMIER EDITION Google.

3.95

Price: $50 per user, per year Pros: Easy to set up, easy to use; no local software to maintain; users have a lot of control. Cons: Very little administrative control, no hierarchy to storage; no administrative hierarchy allowed. The breakdown Ease of administration 25% 4 Scoring Key: 5: Exceptional 4: Very good 3: Average 2: Below average 1: Subpar or not available Security 20% 2.5 Platform support 15% 4.5 Functionality 15% 4 Ease of use 15% 4.5 Installation 10% 5 TOTAL SCORE 3.95 Check out our Collaboration Tools Buyer's Guide.

Click to see: NetResults for Google Apps

Google also provides a SAML-based Single Sign-On service. This service allows credentials to be authenticated by someone other than Google, whether that is your corporate site or a trusted third-party. If you already have a SAML-based Single Sign-On in place, you can connect your Google Apps domain to it.