BetterCloud Gets $2M to Back Push into Google Apps

A coalition of unnamed angel investors, along with BetterCloud CEO David Politis, have just staked BetterCloud to the tune of $2 million to help them bring task management and other concepts to Google (News - Alert) Apps, according to recent reports.

With Google Apps becoming increasingly popular as a way to find applications for business, it's not surprising to see more companies trying to establish a presence there as a way for businesses to find better tools for managing their operations and carrying out necessary tasks.

BetterCloud's upcoming FlashPanel service, for instance, is launching its beta version soon, and allows for email settings to be standardized, as well as providing reports on usage. If a user hasn't logged in recently, administrators can be alerted to accounts that may no longer be needed, and can thus be eliminated to save system resources.

BetterCloud also offers the DomainWatch service, already launched, which gives both admin dashboard and policy editor capabilities to give admins tools to specify the kinds of material a user can share outside of normal domains.

Google Apps, as a provider, is still getting rolling (it officially launched in 2007), so while it currently lacks many of the features offered by a mature environment like that of Microsoft's (News - Alert) dynamic duo of Outlook and Office, Google Apps is working to position itself as more relevant by bringing out new services that users will want.

In fact, some have already said that many of the features Office / Outlook offer go unused anyway, and the pricing involved in Office / Outlook is egregious. Since Microsoft Office costs $50 per user per year, and BetterCloud offers DomainWatch for $8 per user per year, it's safe to see just why businesses are concerned about Microsoft's pricing.

And with Google Apps bringing in many new users across a variety of different markets, from universities to governments to private industry, it's safe to say Google Apps is rapidly becoming the provider of choice.

Though there are still other competitors entering the field – many like to mention Zoho (News - Alert) – they likely won't have Google's blend of new innovation and mature-enterprise-grade resources to work with. Google Apps will surely carry on as a growing and good quality source for business-based applications.

Edited by Braden Becker