Google Apps for Education
Everything Your School Needs, PLUS 24×7 Support
Bring students, teachers and teams together
Fast, easy collaboration is what makes Google Apps unique. Their website and document creation tools offer real-time editing, powerful sharing controls, and seamless compatibility – an ideal environment for learning in the 21st century.
Study together in real time
With Google Docs, just share with a couple of clicks and every student in your class has access to the right version of any document, spreadsheet or presentation. Everyone can jump in and make edits at the same time. No more back-and-forth email attachments and versions that you can’t keep track of.
Study together across distance
Does your institution have more than one campus? Some students studying abroad? Whether near or far, students and staff can arrange impromptu video chats right from your Gmail inbox or jump into the same document and edit it together as if they’re sitting at the same computer.
Get stuff done faster
Google Apps for Education can help streamline academic tasks like essay writing and class scheduling. A group of students can work together on a piece of work in Google Docs, seeing changes in real time rather than waiting for versions to be sent via email. Students can see exactly when their professors are available and vice versa with Google Calendar. By removing these time-consuming bottlenecks, Apps frees you up to spend more time on learning and teaching.
Familiar tools that millions already use
Apps products like Gmail, Docs, Spreadsheets, Slides, and Calendar are already used by hundreds of millions of individuals worldwide. Your students and teachers are already familiar with the products – this means less time training your organization, or learning how to use these tools yourself.
Search and share
No time wasted looking for elusive emails, documents, project sites or files. With Google Apps, all your students and teachers’ stuff is in one place, can be quickly found with their powerful search (no more sorting and filing), and shared with anyone within your school or university with just a click.
Free up your IT department
Focus your IT on activities that add value instead of worrying about the uptime of your email services. Any updates? They happen automatically – just hitting refresh will do the trick!
Study together in real time
With Google Docs, just share with a couple of clicks and every student in your class has access to the right version of any document, spreadsheet or presentation. Everyone can jump in and make edits at the same time. No more back-and-forth email attachments and versions that you can’t keep track of.
Study together across distance
Does your institution have more than one campus? Some students studying abroad? Whether near or far, students and staff can arrange impromptu video chats right from your Gmail inbox or jump into the same document and edit it together as if they’re sitting at the same computer.
Invisible IT that just works
Spend less time managing your IT infrastructure. Your students, teachers and administrators always have access to the latest software, including the newest features and security updates. You don’t need to buy or maintain servers and everything can be managed from a single interface. And yes, it really is free.
Up and running quickly
Your organization can be up and running on Apps within minutes, with customized email addresses (you@yourschool.edu). If you don’t have a web address yet we can help you get one. And as new students and staff join, you can add new users with just a few clicks.
No more patches
Google Apps is updated automatically, so your IT folks can forget about the hassles of downloading and deploying patches or facing the security risks of delayed updates. Google makes it easy by managing everything, including product updates, via Google servers.
New features, as soon as they’re ready
Forget about waiting years for product upgrades. Apps is updated every time you log in, so you get the newest features as soon as they’re ready. And they’re frequently ready; almost every week Google makes updates that can benefit your organization.
No hardware or client software
All you need to use and keep Apps up to date is an internet browser. That means no more specialized hardware or client software to install and maintain, which saves you time spent on trying to get it all to work.
Security and privacy first
Google Apps for Education includes dozens of critical security features specifically designed to keep your data safe, secure and in your control. Your data belongs to you, and Apps tools enable you to control it, including who you share it with and how you share it. Google’s data center network provides exceptional security and guarantees* reliable access to your data, 24x7x365.25 (that’s right: no rest, even on leap years).
Everything is backed up
All data is automatically backed up on Google servers. So when accidents happen – if a computer crashes or gets stolen – you can be up and running again in seconds.
You own and control your data
Any data you put into Google Apps is yours, and it says just that in your contracts. Your information is safe from other organisations, even though it’s all on the same servers. Apps’ powerful, easy-to-use tools help administrators manage things like users, documents and services, and keep track of usage and data via dashboards. And of course you fully own the data, not Google.
Increased security and reliability
Google’s data centers are designed and built for their applications and don’t include unnecessary hardware or software. This reduces the number of potentially exploitable vulnerabilities. They guarantee 99.9% uptime* and build-in robust disaster recovery, so you don’t even have to worry about natural disasters.
Strong encryption and authentication
Google Apps offers an extra layer of security with two factor authentication, which greatly reduces the risk of hackers stealing usernames and passwords. They also automatically encrypt browser sessions with SSL for Apps users without the need for VPNs or other costly, cumbersome infrastructure. This helps protect your students and teachers’ data as it travels between your browser and their data centers.
Google’s team is constantly improving your security
Their large information security team constantly monitors their global network of data centers. Many have advanced degrees and are thought-leaders who are defining their industry’s info-security practices. Google Apps and their data centers are also SSAE 16 / ISAE 3402 Type II SOC 2-audited1 and have achieved ISO 27001 certification2.
1SSAE 16 / ISAE 3402 is an auditing standard by which a third-party auditor evaluates the controls in place for physical and logical security, privacy, incident response, and more.
2ISO 27001 is an industry standard security evaluation certified by Ernst & Young CertifyPoint.
Your privacy is respected.
Google Apps is governed by a detailed Privacy Policy, which ensures they will not inappropriately share or use personal information placed in their systems. Google complies with applicable US privacy law, and the Google Apps Terms of Service can specifically detail their obligations and compliance with FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act) regulations. Google is registered with the US-EU Safe Harbor agreement, which helps ensure that their data protection compliance meets European Union standards for educational institutions
Stay connected from anywhere
With Google Apps for Education, everything is automatically saved in the cloud – 100% powered by the web. This means that emails, documents, calendar and sites can be accessed – and edited – on almost any mobile device or tablet. Anytime, anywhere.
Go Green
Moving to Google Apps helps reduce both your organization’s overall expenses and its environmental impact. Apps is powered by Google’s energy-efficient data centers, so it’s less energy and carbon-intensive than on-premise servers.
Reduce your costs, and your environmental footprint
Moving to the cloud means you can spend less on on electricity and IT infrastructure. Take Gmail: moving your email hosting from on-premise to the cloud could make you up to 80x more energy efficient.
Collaborative tools such as video chat and shared documents help students and teachers feel like they’re in the same room. You’ll reduce extraneous printing, travel costs between campuses, and your overall environmental footprint.
Get sustainable with carbon-neutral IT
Google is a carbon neutral company. They’ve achieved this through a combination of energy-efficient data centers, renewable energy purchases and high quality carbon offsets. This means Google Apps (and all the products you use in their cloud) have a “net zero” impact on the environment.