Google Postini Services Update 10/13/09 11:00 PM

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At 7:15 PM ET, an update was posted for Google Postini Services:

‘We experienced an issue which has caused a backlog of inbound email affecting
users on System 7. We are currently taking steps to address the existing backlog
and minimize the impact on new incoming email. For the affected users inbound
mail has been flowing but at a reduced rate. Outbound mail remains fully
functional. We are working to fully restore mail flow as soon as possible, and
we will provide ongoing updates.’

As of 11:00 PM ET, our observations are as follows:

  • Services are running normally via the Secondary Data Centers
  • New messages are flowing with little apparent delay
  • Deferred messages are being released into the stream
  • The message center and administration console are both available for use.
  • This remains a ‘no data loss event’
  • Spooling is functioning properly”

We updated our home page to refresh recent blog posts at 5 minute intervals. We will continue to post information as appropriate.

Google Postini Service Update: 6:20 PM ET

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For our customers, mail flow for Google Postini Services has been “normal” since about 3:25 this afternoon. A short while ago, the Message Center and System Administration consoles came back online.


The Postini service will continue to add deferred messages to the stream of messages being process and delivered in real-time. While we have no official word about how long it will take to forward all of the deferred messages, we expect the process will take several hours.

We will continue to monitor the process and post updates as appropriate.

We certainly understand the frustration and pain that accompanies email service disruptions. We appreciate your patience and understanding.

Share with Groups!

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In a recent enhancement to sharing in Google Apps, you can now share documents for viewing or editing by Group. This feature makes sharing with project teams, customer teams, or large numbers of individuals faster and easier.

Group sharing is works with:

  • Docs (documents, spreadsheets, and presentations)
  • Sites
  • Video

To learn how, Click Here.

To learn more about how to improvide sharing and collaboration, Click Here.

Google Postini Service Update: 3:00PM ET

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Google Postini Services continue to experience mail flow problems. Mail flow rates continue to swing between Normal and Critical this afternoon.


Horizon’s customers site on Postini’s “System 7”, which is now operating out of secondary data centers. This shift should improve mail flow as the systems forward deferred messages.

A status update posted at 2:40 PM ET indicates significant progress in improving mail processing.
Note: During this time, messages may be deferred or queued, but no messages will be lost, deleted or bounced. Mail processing may also be directed to the secondary data center at times.

Given the nature of the incident, we expect mail flow performance will continue to fluctuate until the issue is fully resolved and the backlog of email is delivered.

We will continue to post updates as they become available.


Google Postini Service Update

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12:45 PM ET

Some users are still experiencing intermittent delays in email delivery through Google Postini Services. Currently, mail flow is at near normal levels. Emails will still be delayed as the service forwards queued and deferred messages.
Given the “fast/slow” nature of this event, we expect that mail flow rates may continue to fluctuate this afternoon. We will post another update as information comes in.

Manage Email Retention With or Without an Archive

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With 25GB of inbox space for each user, managing space is rarely an issue. Company policies related to records retention, however, often create a need to enforce retention policies on email messages.

In Google Apps Premier Edition, you can not set a retention period for email. Once set, Gmail will automatically permanently delete all email messages older than the retention period.

If you want or need to limit user retention of emails, but need to retain corporate access to messages for legal or compliance reasons, we can add Google Message Discovery to your Google Apps service.

Google Message Discovery is an email archive/recovery/e-discovery service that offers secure, audited archives of all messages sent or delivered for up to 10 years. Message Discovery also works with most any in-house email system.

Click Here to learn more about Google Message Discovery or to view a product data sheet (PDF format).

Google Calendars: Group Invites

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Google Calendars now let you invite groups.

To invite a group to your event:

  • Simply enter the group name under ‘Guests’ in your Google Calendar invitation.

Google Calendars: Help Your Social Networking Efforts

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One of the basic tenants of social networking is to be mindful of your contacts’ birthdays and special events. Google Calendar can help. You can now add a special calendar that shows your contacts’ birthdays and events.

To add the birthday and event calendar in Google Calendar:

  • From the Settings page, select ‘Browse interesting calendars’ (at the bottom)
  • Click on “More”
  • You can then preview or subscribe to the ‘Contacts’ birthdays and events’ calendar.

Industry Update: Microsoft’s Sidekick/Danger Failure was NOT a Cloud Failure

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Over the weekend, Microsoft and T-Mobile acknowledged that the server failure earlier in the week would likely result in the total loss of user data.


While some in the “tech media and blog-o-sphere” tout this as a failure of the cloud computing model, the reality is somewhat different.

Read my post at Internet Evolution and learn more why not all hosted services are cloud-based and why it is important to know the difference.

— Allen

Set your Sites on better Gadget and LInk Integration

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To expand the potential of Google Sites for internal and secure customer portal, Google has improved how gadgets and links are managed.

You can now

  • Paste embeddings that use object, embed, or iframe tags; they will be auto-wrapped in a gadget
  • Add custom links in your sidebar navigation, using manual mode
  • More easily paste HTML from external sources

Click here to learn more …