"Google has caught the attention of enterprises with the low price [of $50 per user per year] of its Google Apps Premier Edition (GAPE) solution. However, there's a catch: limited functionality and new information technology (IT) risks."

Burton Group senior analyst Guy Creese claims Google Apps could be a "career-limiting move for enterprise architects" if they expect too much from the rudimentary widgetry.

Even Google itself hasn't replaced its Office desks.

It might be good for schools, start-ups and small businesses with basic needs but the corporation is another thing. Users have to worry about lost data, records management, five-day-a-week telephone support, incomplete products, irregular upgrades and storing data the far side of the corporate firewall.

And, he adds, "The product's rudimentary feature set combined with Google's unique company culture [of making content available to the world] could spell disaster if unwisely deployed."

Creese thinks Microsoft is going to meet the challenge and defeat it. "While Microsoft may take a perception hit from Google," he says, "especially in the SMB market, in the short run, it will no doubt regroup and come out stronger in the end."

Creese's piece is called "Google Apps in the Enterprise: A Promotion-Enhancing or Career-Limiting Move for Enterprise Architects?"