Google Apps offers cash-strapped small businesses a lot of bang for the buck, but one app that can cause problems is Gmail.
Specifically, each Google Apps account affords just 25GB of Gmail storage, meaning it’s not uncommon for users to bump into that ceiling—especially if they’re on the receiving end of a lot of attachments.
When that happens, the user can’t send or receive mail, which is a potentially serious problem. What if a customer submits an order and your sales guy doesn’t receive it because his mailbox is full?
Backupify’s new FreeSpace promises to help clear out overstuffed Gmail accounts. It does so primarily by scanning inboxes for attachments and identifying the largest ones, then allowing users to delete or download them.
Neither action has any impact on the email threads themselves; only the attachments are affected.
FreeSpace also offers tools for Google Apps administrators, allowing them to review users’ Gmail usage and alert them to take action when storage space is running low.
All this takes place within simple, attractive dashboards. (Click the thumbnail above to see a larger, more detailed version.)
To get started with FreeSpace, just sign in as an administrator or a user. There’s no charge to use the service; it’s a freebie courtesy of Backupify. (If the name doesn’t ring a bell, Backupify is a cloud-based backup service for Google Apps, Facebook, Salesforce, and other SaaS accounts.