In a significant stride toward enterprise functionality, Google has introduced Google Apps Sync for Microsoft Outlook. This new plugin synchronizes mail, calendar, and contacts between Google Apps and Microsoft Outlook, giving users the option to choose where to access their information. Enterprise users can move seamlessly between Google Apps and Microsoft Outlook, phasing at their own pace. Gmail’s web interface is available when users are out of the office.

This major effort to ease the Outlook-to-Apps transition eliminates a “key barrier to enterprise adoption of Google Apps,” and invites more businesses to try out the Google Apps mail infrastructure while maintaining the familiar Outlook interface. Organizations will benefit from the cost-savings of a Google Apps back-end and users won’t have to be re-trained on a new interface. It’s a win-win for everyone.

Google Apps Sync for Microsoft Outlook will be available to companies with Google Apps Premier and Education editions.