Adopting Google Desktop Enterprise

Google Desktop, when used in a business environment, is a good productivity tool. The normal Google Desktop is for personal use only. To implement Google Desktop and take advantage of Enterprise-level installation and management features, you need to install Google Desktop for Enterprise.

You can find Google Desktop for Enterprise at http://desktop.google.com/en/enterprise.

Note 

Google offers a premium support package that assists administrators with enterprise deployment of Google Desktop for Enterprise.

Like any good enterprise-quality software product, Google Desktop for Enterprise allows system administrators to control user features and preferences across the entire domain. Because Google Desktop provides such a wide variety of features and functions, administrators also have the ability to control things such as document retention, the encryption of user data, and search indexes.

Google Desktop for Enterprise uses Group Policy to manage its global preference options, indexing options, and integration with the Google Search Appliance or Google Mini, which are hardware devices discussed in Chapter 38. For more information about Group Policy, see the sidebar “Microsoft Group Policy Refresher.”

Setting Google Desktop preferences

When setting the preferences, the system administrator can control many important features, including what types of files are indexed. This is particularly important when information security is of great concern. For example, one of the things you can choose to turn off for the entire enterprise is the ability to index secure Web pages. The administrator also can control gadgets by disallow them, silently install them, or create a gadget “whitelist” to allow only certain approved gadgets.

When you are ready to push your Google Desktop policy out to the users, follow these steps:

1. Create a Group Policy Object (GPO).

2. Edit the GPO in either your Group Policy Management Console or the Active Directory Management Console.

3. Apply the GPO to the entire domain or to specific Organizational Units (OUs).

Installing Google Desktop

You can install Google Desktop on computers throughout your business in several ways. You can have users install Google Desktop on their own, controlling the features they can configure through Group Policy. You also can push out or publish the application to the end users using Group Policy Software Installation, and you can use the Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager. When you use the System Center Configuration Manager, installations are done only when the user activates the Google Desktop icon.