Google starts charging small businesses (as in with 10 employees or less) using Google Apps-- even if companies already making free use of the cloud applications can continue doing so.
Originally Google offered a free version of Google apps together with the "premium" subscription-based Google Apps for Business. Now it only offers the premium version.
The subscription ($50 annually per user) includes phone support, 25GB of data storage and a 99.99% uptime guarantee.
Individuals, schools and universities can still use Google Apps for free.
Google Apps are just one of a number of cloud productivity suites available on the market. Similar offerings come from the likes of Microsoft, Intuit and Sage.
