Why MITIE chose Exchange Server - after evaluating Google Apps

I think another consideration in Google Apps vs. BPOS vs. Exchange 2010 is the vendor support. Google is doing a great job on selling on price- and if price is the only consideration, then they are hard to beat. However, their product support is abysmal, to put it kindly. Having dealt first hand with getting support from them on their Postini offering, well, lets just say that if you need a vendor to offer poor documentation and not return calls- even when you call every day on the same issue asking for any kind of status report whatsoever such that it takes 6 weeks to finally resolve with "oh yeah, we'll have that feature next year", then Google is hands down the way to go. I can't imagine being in a situation with them where I've got a CxO breathing down my neck for an answer, and all I can say is "well, they're not returning my calls, and I can't make them call me. The service has to be completely down for them to escalate."

Google is an advertising company that started out by making a search engine. Keep that in mind. They're merely dabbling in the enterprise at this point, and the enterprise makes up but a tiny sliver of their revenue. At least Microsoft knows where their bread is buttered.

Are Google's enterprise offerings any good? Sure- they're as good as the requirements they fulfill for your enterprise. God help you if you need post-sales support, however- in that regard, they are showing their immaturity.