http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/05/27/137229

Interesting, there are some good and bad points raised on slashdot.org and there are couple posts talk about how DH is overselling and that's why DH is "outsourcing" email to Google.

I'm not sure how business/people feel about Google mining their email. perhaps, it's not a big deal but in order for Google to provide free email service. Google must be mining gmail in order to place ad.

how do you guys feel about using Google as parnter? Is webhosting going to have any market left after Google and Microsoft finish building their datacenter around the world and putting computing/hosting into the "cloud"?

p.s. i didn't find any topic regarding DH switching to Gmail if it's already been posted please move this thread. thank

Email is very taxing on any server, and even more so taxing if that server is oversold to the hilt to begin with. I can see why they're pushing their clients to outsource their email to Google, if this is really what's happening.

I often joke to Steve that we'll outsource all email to Google, considering the server load and support tickets email generates. :D :blush:

Email is very taxing on any server, and even more so taxing if that server is oversold to the hilt to begin with. I can see why they're pushing their clients to outsource their email to Google, if this is really what's happening.

I often joke to Steve that we'll outsource all email to Google, considering the server load and support tickets email generates. :D :blush:

Amen to that! We have actually half-seriously tossed around that idea as well.

--Tina

I never used Dreamhost's mail system, but I love my gmail account (s).

Amen to that! We have actually half-seriously tossed around that idea as well.
I think most hosts have dreamed about no email on their servers. :D

gmail is the best and everything about their email system is impressive.

Not a bad idea in some ways, maybe if google were to release a special web mail client that can be embedded on your site. You get to outsource email and google can display minimal adverts possibly?

So what will happen when Google starts offering (free) hosting as well? You will just have given them your client list for free.

So what will happen when Google starts offering (free) hosting as well? You will just have given them your client list for free.


Nah.. of course you just "outsource" the hosting to gmail as well.

Despite the rumors that Google will come and get the industry owned -- do not worry. They can be good in technology, good in advertising and good in whatever else you can think, but once they get a large customer base they will be stuck in the service.

Definitely, they will drop the bomb with this, however it will be for a while. Once it's come to support these customers they will surely fail.

I'm not sure how business/people feel about Google mining their email. perhaps, it's not a big deal but in order for Google to provide free email service. Google must be mining gmail in order to place ad.

Just about every free email service reads incoming email, just not in the same way as gmail. How do you think free email providers determine what is SPAM and what isn't? They will look at every email that comes in and look for keywords (among other things). They also scan all attachments to try to find viruses.

Just about every free email service reads incoming email, just not in the same way as gmail. How do you think free email providers determine what is SPAM and what isn't? They will look at every email that comes in and look for keywords (among other things). They also scan all attachments to try to find viruses.

that's spam filtering. there is difference between reading for spam and reading to place ad.

every spam filtering solution going to scan your email but they don't mine it. while google and other free email service providers do. i can set the spam filtering on my email server but it's not going to place ad when my user read it.

Email volume is nothing a little less overselling, and a few more cpu's can't easily fix. What exactly is the problem with Dreamhost?

We've had more customers come to us wanting email services in the past few months then we've had in the past few years. Most of them come from google, yahoo or comcast.


Yawn.




Regards,

Amen to that! We have actually half-seriously tossed around that idea as well.

--Tina

:S why dont you just not overload your servers so much then, if you run at 50-65% like i do you will never have any issues with emails :D What a stupid idea from dreamhost!

I don't really see the issue here. We have lots of customers who do not use us for their email and rather use google apps. Some reasons I've heard have been things like they rather not have mail using up their web space, they use imap and moving hosting providers in the past has been a pain moving the mail itself.

I also don't think very web few hosts can provide the spam filtering quality of google. I also don't think they can provide as reliable of a mail service as google can.

Even for people running their own mail servers google apps is a very appealing service. Running your own mail system can be a big headache.

I can only imagine dealing with spam both internally and externally at a company like dreamhost must be a nightmare. This decision seems prudent albeit unprofessional to me.

Ultimately, the market will dictate if they approve of this by leaving or staying with dreamhost.

I guess they also figured the obese child looked unprofessional. Then again the sales robot is annoying.

For such a large and successful company, Dreamhost can be pretty strange at times. Urging people to move to google = people wonder what they're actually paying Dreamhost to do...

What a stupid idea that of outsourcing email to Gmail. Why dont you outsource websites as well then?

If people dont want to work or dont want to take the costs of maintaining an email server they should not offer hosting at all. There allot of persons that needs a host because of email and dont need a website. What kind of impression is that for a business if you tell them to use a free service from another company. That talks very low about the services itself. Its better you outsource directly to your competition in that case. Oh forgot, Google is competition, they already an ICANN registrar and they are preparing their free hosting platform to be launched soon...just keep the hard work of letting Google take over all your services.

Thing that bothered me about it wasn't the concept of outsourcing - it was the hint that they might be forcing (at some point) their clients to find a mail server themselves if they want to use Dreamhost as a web server because they're not as good at email. There was a way to do it right, and a way to do it so it looked like they were whining and quitting, and it seemed to me they picked the latter.

It's all fine and good for Dreamhost to feel rah rah about GMail and if they believe GMail's better, fine, I have no problem with that - but if that's the case, they should put their money where their mouth is and pay Google for Google Apps Partner Edition, integrate it into their offering, and stand behind it with their money as well as their mouth.

I think the reaction to the post would have been a lot different if it looked like they were trying to solve their issues that way and take responsibility for the service people pay for, as opposed to foisting it off on another company with the side effect of Dreamhost not having to deal with it at all.

DreamHost target the geeky crowd whom generally are also the type to lap up everything Google can throw at them...

Some of us consider how much Google knows about us though, and do not use Gmail ;)

google pay good money for every signup sent to them. I think the dreamhost move is very smart, and I am most impressed by it.
Its not a new thing though - take a look at companies like name.com etc.

I don't have many problems with DreamHost's advice - as long as it stays as advice and they do not artificially start to bottleneck e-mail services so to encourage customers off of their own servers.

DreamHost have realised there is no use trying to specialise in or improve on what Google Mail does fantastically, and to an enormous scale (not one moment of downtime in its history). They instead want to focus on what they believe they do best - web hosting.

on what Google Mail does fantastically, and to an enormous scale (not one moment of downtime in its history).

Please don't spread incorrect statements about how "perfect" gmail is.


They've had numerous security breaches (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&hs=GsU&q=%22gmail+security%22&btnG=Search)
They've had numerous hours of downtime (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&hs=krU&q=%22gmail+down%22&btnG=Search)

We've had more email-only accounts this year then in all the ones previously combined. Our new clients are coming from primarily yahoo, comcast and google.



Regards,

I should correct myself and say "complete downtime" - outages have always been (in my experience) regionalised.

It makes sense to me.

We have customers who run their own e-mail accounts through Gmail before pulling them into their helpdesk (by POP3-SSL/IMAP) as well.

It doesn't hurt to have the extra backup of your e-mail history, redundancy during downtime, portability and a little help on knocking off some spam.

I can see how it bites into the economy webhost pie a bit, but you'll always have people who want full control of their services.

Smaller hosts should be happy if DreamHost kicks off that trend. It gives you another differentiation.

DreamHost have realised there is no use trying to specialise in or improve on what Google Mail does fantastically

No what they realise is that if they can offload a large chunk of email to someone else, they can squeeze more people on their servers and make more money. It's that simple.

I think the big program is alot of large hosts don't setup their email properly, or treat it as an "extra". Exim is not an ideal MTA for a webhost, its not designed for performance. If you've only got a few hosting accounts CPanel is fine, however the way Cpanel and other control panels use and setup email is horribly inefficent. Ideally you should be running email on a separate server to your webhosting, if you have alot of accounts as they both have different CPU patterns. Emails response time is less important than Webpages, which means latency is less important. A webpage you expect to respone in under a secound. An Email you expect to take around 1-10 minutes to arrive.

I also don't think very web few hosts can provide the spam filtering quality of google. I also don't think they can provide as reliable of a mail service as google can.


With statement #1, yes, with statement #2 no. Google has had quite a few outages with their gmail service.

I find it foolish to outsource clients services over to a competitor. Especially since mail is and should be a core service for any web hosting company. If a competitor has a better product and service, then dont you think its a better idea to work on improving your service/product than just outsourcing it to a competitor?

I really have to laugh at any web hosting company employee/owner that uses gmail versus their own service. Kind of tells a lot, doesnt it?

Hello all.

Actually we also use gmail as our primary email contact because of previous experience with Spam. And it is quite easy to search over the mails.

Personally, there is nothing wrong with it. They are simply encouraging and not forcing as the word maybe. We also encourage our customers to have a separate contact email like gmail so that we can contact them in case of downtime anytime. But, we don't force them. They still keep their email with their domain name in it.

God bless everyone.

:)

Very interesting for them to actually request customers to use Gmail instead of using the email accounts on their server.

Regardless, GMail does rock.

Whait till they launch the gsite...

This is not overselling as it's under another company with it's logo and etc....

Go ahead feed the competition with your client's

Errr... please tell you guys know dreamhost will be getting paid for this. If they are joining as DH's referrer...
in other words google has or had this reselling option for their email long back.

I'm a DreamHost customer and used their webmail for a short while and it was the worst email service I'd used. I switched to using Gmail, and when DreamHost came out with their Google Apps integration I went for it and that's what I use now. I can see why they'd rather have customers on Gmail/Google Apps, but they should also make some effort to improve their own webmail service.

An interesting read, to say the least.

Email is very taxing on any server, and even more so taxing if that server is oversold to the hilt to begin with. I can see why they're pushing their clients to outsource their email to Google, if this is really what's happening.

I often joke to Steve that we'll outsource all email to Google, considering the server load and support tickets email generates. :D :blush:

You are bringing up a good point. They do sell very large hosting packages which if you would remove the email aspect from them that would surely lessen the server load. It seems to be a good strategy to countinue surviving in this business.

I can only see this as a positive. In fact, it is how we already operate at our own free hosting branch - it is a major cost saver, and let's face it: Google Apps is just a good product. :)

Just based on our mail filtering statistics, it seems like the bulk of the mail load is actually in spam. Seems like the easiest way to reduce the mail load on servers is to move antispam services in front of the servers. 92% of all mail we receive is spam. And since we process about 150 million messages a month I think that's a fairly representative sample. :)

Whether you move spam filtering in front by putting up your own dedicated appliances or custom boxes with spamassassin on them or go with a service, it still seems like the easiest and cheapest way to get more out of your hosting servers. Not to mention it's a nice thing to be able to trumpet to your users that you're putting into place even more effective spam controls.

Just seems strange to me to encourage customers to use someone else's service like that.

Wouldn't it be easier to simply filter spammers from sending crap from their servers (thus resulting in no blacklisting of the server IP)?

Most spams I get are worded almost identically.

a simple test:

sign-up for a gmail account and send yourself some test messages from your server(s). send every possible email, from a client's perspective, (welcome, forgot password, invoice, newsletter, support ticket, promos, etc) and watch as your competition's ads appear all over your screen.

Do you really want your customers exposed to your competition ?

XXX of your customers WILL LEAVE YOU for a 'Giga MHz Double Ram Bonus' save $10/year !

If the customer is now using gmail as a primary messaging system, then all 'conversations' are being 'targeted' and your customer exposed to the comp x1000^2.

Definitely a bad move. They should figure out how to reduce the cost of handling mail, not how to make it zero.

^^ ZL6net, I don't think that would be as big a problem as you do. Sure, a few customers might leave, but that would prove they didn't value your service too much anyway, and if any problems with their accounts did occur, they'd be out in the blink of an eye anyway. I think clients who actually value the service would stick around.

Greetings:

While this is our 13th year in business, we are much smaller than DreamHost. Hopefully, should God see fit, that we would be in their shoes in terms of size, we would still be able to manage email on our own services.

One of the reasons we appreciate H-Sphere's hosting automation is that we can have logical services such as email on their own physical servers.

It is not uncommon for our mail servers' bandwidth utilization to be several MB per second; and as George A. Roberts IV pointed out, we see most of that traffic as being spam (currently 92.25% of the email traffic is spam).

Since we do not oversell our services, and have email on its own servers, we've not been too dramatically impacted by the spam.

But it does come at the price of additional servers, and paying more careful attention to email issues.

Should Jesus tarry, maybe in a few years, we would be considering similar measures as Dreamhost, not sure... but to the degree we can, we do desire to keep services in-house.

Thank you.

I say we should all just stop using email. Back to postage stamps and licking the envelope shut :-p

I say we should all just stop using email. Back to postage stamps and licking the envelope shut :-p
You can go stand in the corner! :bkick:

I say we should all just stop using email. Back to postage stamps and licking the envelope shut :-p
FTW! (for the win)

Heck, if there were no e-mail communication would be so much more easily understood (note the abbr. I used). We would not have all of this "brb, ttyl, omfgb" and the like that our teenagers use if e-mail was not alive. Before instant messaging or MySpace, e-mail existed and created all of the hassle it has become today.

Of course! E-mail is a great means of instant communication. But in some cases, it probably saves much time when an e-mail is misinterpreted or if something gets sent to the wrong person. It's much more easy to do with e-mail. I, *cringes* think that e-mail is lazy in some cases and we should indeed convert back to mail and the like. *ducks for cover*

Where did that come from? :eek:

Anyhow, yes, GMail is very nice. Kudos to BlueHost.

Please don't spread incorrect statements about how "perfect" gmail is.

They've had numerous security breaches (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&hs=GsU&q=%22gmail+security%22&btnG=Search)
They've had numerous hours of downtime (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&hs=krU&q=%22gmail+down%22&btnG=Search)

Right on. Gmail is cool, innovative but by no means reliable. I use it for personal email ONLY. I would never trust it for anything critical certainly not for customer data or communication. We used to use Google Apps and constantly e-mail bounced as many of Google's mail servers are listed on all black lists known to man. Google REFUSES to address this. Other issues include random deletion of email accounts due to internal database corruption.

Gmail is nice but I would not say perfect by any stretch.

You can go stand in the corner! :bkick:

Can I come of the corner now? Getting lonely here. :gone:

Right on. Gmail is cool, innovative but by no means reliable. I use it for personal email ONLY. I would never trust it for anything critical certainly not for customer data or communication. We used to use Google Apps and constantly e-mail bounced as many of Google's mail servers are listed on all black lists known to man. Google REFUSES to address this. Other issues include random deletion of email accounts due to internal database corruption.

Gmail is nice but I would not say perfect by any stretch.

5 reasons why not to use Gmail: http://www.seoegghead.com/blog/seo/5-reasons-not-to-use-gmail-p204.html

No wonder Dreamhost is encouraging people to use gmail, half of all support tickets involve email problems with Dreamhost's email servers!

From "The Official Deamhost Weblog (http://blog.dreamhost.com/2008/05/23/what-web-hosting-is-for/)"

Just over HALF of all the support requests we get are about email. Everything else we offer, combined, doesn’t add up to the amount of trouble, expense, use, and effort that goes into “simple” old email.

seems like bad policy to me.

No wonder Dreamhost is encouraging people to use gmail, half of all support tickets involve email problems with Dreamhost's email servers!

From "The Official Deamhost Weblog (http://blog.dreamhost.com/2008/05/23/what-web-hosting-is-for/)"

I don't think it's fair to assume that all of those support requests are raised because of actual issues on Dreamhost's side - I'm sure a good portion are simply issues on the customer's end.

I don't think it's fair to assume that all of those support requests are raised because of actual issues on Dreamhost's side - I'm sure a good portion are simply issues on the customer's end.

Just over HALF of all the support requests we get are about email. (http://blog.dreamhost.com/2008/05/23/what-web-hosting-is-for/)

I was not inferring it to mean hardware or even server related issues. I meant in terms of customers using Dreamhost for email as opposed to Google, Yahoo, or another email service...

No wonder Dreamhost is encouraging people to use gmail, half of all support tickets involve email problems with Dreamhost's email servers!

From "The Official Deamhost Weblog (http://blog.dreamhost.com/2008/05/23/what-web-hosting-is-for/)"

Sounds like a lot of just bitching from DH. Email issues just come with the territory of being a web host. I bet you that for a large majority of hosts, email related tickets are close to 50% of tickets. And yes, a lot of the time, its either an issue on the clients side or the receiving server. But hey, it comes with the territory.

Sounds like a lot of just bitching from DH. Email issues just come with the territory of being a web host. I bet you that for a large majority of hosts, email related tickets are close to 50% of tickets. And yes, a lot of the time, its either an issue on the clients side or the receiving server. But hey, it comes with the territory.


I don't see it as 'bitching' - I see it as problem-solving. Nothing wrong with that, IMO.

--Tina

Personally, I think, it is a good move. They see where the problem come from and they act on it. If it reduces the ticket loads, that means the solution is effective. And I think gmail is good solution.

:)

Sounds like a lot of just bitching from DH. Email issues just come with the territory of being a web host. I bet you that for a large majority of hosts, email related tickets are close to 50% of tickets. And yes, a lot of the time, its either an issue on the clients side or the receiving server. But hey, it comes with the territory.

Such was my first thought. :D

Perhaps they should just work like a normal business and add the true cost of their email services into their end products prices.

Thats running a business at the most basic and crucial level ....

Such was my first thought. :D

Probably not, since you originally said:

No wonder Dreamhost is encouraging people to use gmail, half of all support tickets involve email problems with Dreamhost's email servers!


which suggests that these are problems on Dreamhost's end...

I don't think it's fair to assume that all of those support requests are raised because of actual issues on Dreamhost's side - I'm sure a good portion are simply issues on the customer's end.

From my own experience, I would have to agree. Most of the problems are on the client's end, or a improperly configured receiving server.

After more than 10 years using outlook express for reading mail, las month I switched to Gmail. I even uploaded *all* my mail to Gmail using the new Imap features. Hey, I'm still learning all the quirks, but I know It's the right choice. All my email accounts/domains are hosted by google, spam is not an issue anymore, and I can respond to clients from ANY computer in the world. I wish .. with all my heart .. that all my clients go the same route. I'm even considering making a video tutorial on how to make the switch from pop3 mail to gmail.

BTW, if you are going through what I'm going through, I recommend firefox+greasemonkey+best scripts. Specially the ones about signatures and clean interface.

This just amazes me. I can't even imagine someone who is supposed to be a "web hos" i.e. "Internet Services Provider "outsourcing" e-mail to a "freemail" company.

I guess that's one quick way to spot a big-time overseller. One thing about the "web hosting world" it never ceases to amaze me....:rolleyes:

Companies like ours offer small WEB hosting accounts. Yes, they *can* host emails too (cpanel), but the original product is web hosting.
Most of the time, we design and host sites with almost no problems. But then comes the never ending naggin about email not beeing delivered. Most of the time, our server is not issue, still, we are the ones that end up giving the support.

For webhosts who do not specialize in general hosting, promoting gmail is a very good solution.

I have gmail already :P

Companies like ours offer small WEB hosting accounts.

For webhosts who do not specialize in general hosting, promoting gmail is a very good solution.

........very true and worth thinking about. ;)

Why can't everyone just keep a server under 60% load? It's not hard, just cut your take home a little and do your clients a favor.

I've had some clients for 7 years now that won't leave even if I wanted them to. When your clients have nothing to worry about, then they will pay ANY price to get hosted. Then past the hosting, you build friendship and a partnership for a long time coming.

some people might prefer to use gmail as the email client, you can then use the other tools like Google Calendar, Documents, etc which may be beneficial to companies trying to share data & manage appointments etc..
Just a thought...

go google for your own domain,
who realy care if they are mining data to show you some ads...
you are using search dont you?

so the what is the different...
they know what you like anyway.

Just a thought...

go google for your own domain,
who realy care if they are mining data to show you some ads...
you are using search dont you?

so the what is the different...
they know what you like anyway.

Just a thought...

and wouldn't you prefer personalized add's as apposed to just random 'crap' ?

As a DreamHost customer for 2 years (and a happy one I might add) I was quite pleased/excited/happy that they have started offering email through Gmail! I'm very happy with the service offer. And they aren't forcing anyone to switch as far as I know... just offering another feature/service in my books. Yeah maybe there is another way to do it and all... but I'm an end user... I want it simple. And they have done so!

If it helps them with server load... then all the more power to them! I'm not in to getting the most out of DreamHost rather I'm in to getting a good service! I don't care who all gets involved to make it happen.

The adverts on Gmail so far has been unobtrusive (so that doesn't bother me either). But I've clicked on the occasional ad to (and actually on the last one, the advertiser got a very happy customer, to the point that I'm telling others about the service I get from this new company).

And the spam filtering... you can't beat it... at least I haven't found anything to beat it!

All in all I'm living and loving it! :D

I don't think it's fair to assume that all of those support requests are raised because of actual issues on Dreamhost's side - I'm sure a good portion are simply issues on the customer's end.
It's been my experience in dealing with many thousands of email issue tickets over the years, that 95% of them are issues on their client's end, with their email setup and config etc.

I personally think it's a great idea to encourage clients to outsource email to Google, but you are letting Google into the door, so to speak, so that's a slight concern right there.

Free Gmail today.

Free G-hosting tomorrow???

Free Gmail today.

Free G-hosting tomorrow???

If Google could have more big hosts like dreamhost move to gmail, it would be great for them as they will have a lot of increased traffic, without having to modify their system. As for offering free hosting, they are already doing it with google pages. They are a very big company, and I believe it will be very hard to provide support to millions of clients, they way webhosts currently do. Are they able to provide phone, ticket and live chat support? I highly doubt.

I remember everyone saying this years ago about another industry - doesn't anyone remember when they first deregulated the registrars, and how many conversations were had about those guys eventually offering hosting, and some swore they would never offer hosting and compete with the hosts who brought them most of their business?

Yeah, I recall that, too.

Underestimating what a behemoth like that can do and swearing it could never happen doesn't seem like the greatest business strategy in the world.

I remember everyone saying this years ago about another industry - doesn't anyone remember when they first deregulated the registrars, and how many conversations were had about those guys eventually offering hosting, and some swore they would never offer hosting and compete with the hosts who brought them most of their business?

Yeah, I recall that, too.

Underestimating what a behemoth like that can do and swearing it could never happen doesn't seem like the greatest business strategy in the world.

I was just speculating. It doesn't seem logical to me why would Google want to go head to head with webhosting providers, while it could have them outsource their email services to Gmail, without having to compete with them. At the end, what Google wants is ads, and they are just getting it.

If Google starts offering hosting services, it will be seen by most hosting providers as Microsoft is seen by Open Source fanatics, a big ugly company that wants to control the world.

Just my 2c. :)

and wouldn't you prefer personalized add's as apposed to just random 'crap' ?

It's not random crap by the way..its generally targeted based on your emails. You have the option to pay google for ad removal..but thats your choice :)

I think its unfair that clients are being pushed to Google for email. A large chunk of web hosting actually goes to email storage. The fact the spam is at a high and that Ips are being blacklisted is a concern (+ requirements for SPF, Domainkeys and what not)....

Since there are companies out there like Google (Google Apps) that have everything prepared to keep emails going the right way ...a lot of people are switching....

We tried a test system for our free and paid email service, but it didnt work out right. Instead we setup our own Socketmail email system instead.

I noticed one thing though - Dreamhost urges users to use Gmail, but can still use their own email systems (I was just hired for a few things by customers of Dreamhost) and I noticed things work fine (Email access), the offering is an optional thing ... I feel rather than a parternship - it sounds to me like the commission system. Google Apps pays for referrals so Dreamhost I assume found another source of revenue. Alternatively, it could be a way to offshore tons of spam and emails to google and let them handle it. Google wants userbase anyhow...the only thing Dreamhost might have missed out is Google's bringing its hosting services out as well slowly through the Google App system....they might lose clients...but then again the commission might be good enough for them not to worry :)

My few cents...

PS - theres been a request my moderators to prove that we are connected either as a client or have actually worked for a client of the hosting (dreamhost) so that its not spam - I am adding the client of dreamhosts link for the same purpose -
turkmail (dot) im

Regards

Google should ask DH for some $$$

I believe Dreamhosts get paid...Google has a system to pay each new user/domain signed up for "Google Apps"

Regards

There are two con that i can think of right now with outsourcing email to Google.

1. Google does not have a good track record of privacy. Witness the Viacom/Google lawsuit currently playing it out. Also, ad is the biggest profit that Google currently have. Gmail is one way to show more ad and know you better to place better ad. I'm not sure if your business customers want to targeted with ad or their business data being crawled.

2. What if Google eventually get into your business since email already on Google's cloud. why not the rest of the webhosting. what's stopping Google when it already know all your customers.