Google Incorported is having problems keeping its uptime pledge to some paying customers of its Google Apps suite of hosted services. Little over a month after introducing Google Apps" Premier version, which includes a 99.99% uptime commitment, Google is failing to meet that service level agreement (SLA) for an undetermined number of customers. On Tuesday, users using and not using Google Apps" reported Gmail availability problems that began in the morning (U.S. Eastern Time) and were declared officially solved for all users early Wednesday afternoon.
This was at least the third significant Gmail downtime incident this month for Google Apps customers, most of whom are small businesses and universities. In all cases, the problems affected an undisclosed number of Premier users, as well as those on the free Standard and Education versions. Customers from all over emphasize they are very satisfied with the quality of Google Apps but are particularly disappointed when it comes to its reliability. Google is currently offering customers the opportunity to try the Premier edition for free until the end of April.