Google Launches Fee Based Google Apps

As we expected, Google has launched a “Premier Edition” of Google Apps. Google Apps Premier Edition will give you everything standard Google Apps has plus the following features:

• 99.9% uptime guarantee for email**
• 10 GB / account
• Ability to turn off ads
• Shared calendar resources
• APIs to integrate with your existing infrastructure
  • Single sign-on
  • User provisioning and management
  • Support for email gateway
• Limited Email migration tools
• 24/7 assistance, including phone support
• 3rd party applications and services
• Plus everything standards Google Apps offers

You can now try Google Apps Premier edition for free until April 30, 2007. You will be asked for your credit card information, but you can cancel the service up until April 30, 2007, so that you won’t be charged. If you want to sign up, fill out this form and also read the premier edition agreement.

The blogosphere was buzzing last night with rumors that this might launch. Both Google Blogoscoped and Techcrunch got early wind of this launch. There is a ton of coverage on this release, visit Techmeme for the roundup. Search Engine Roundtable also has forum coverage.

Postscript: The official press release is out and can be read here. I noticed there that Google also added Google Docs & Spreadsheets into Google Apps, also as we expected. In addition, they offer Gmail for mobile devices on BlackBerry and application-level control for company administrators.