Google takes YouTube to the enterprise

Google Video for Business allows users to share videos within an organisation

Google has extended the functionality of Google Apps with a new video collaboration service for the enterprise.

Google Video for Business is available at no extra cost to Google Apps Premier Edition customers.

The offering allows users to share videos between individuals, groups or the entire organisation, according to Dave Armstrong, European head of marketing at Google Enterprise.

"A lot of organisations wanted this next level of communication, but costs were prohibitive," he said.

"But the technology is now ready to offer the service with the security and sharing requirements of businesses."

Google Video for Business could be used to disseminate training videos, corporate communications from senior management or product demos, and allows users to comment on videos.

Ovum analyst David Mitchell described the service as highly usable and secure.

"It is built on the Google Apps platform, with the whole Google infrastructure beneath it, which has been pretty reliable so far," he said.

"It is an interesting next step for Google Apps, bringing another type of material people can collaborate and share. It will incrementally find its way into the enterprise."

Each Google Apps Premier Edition domain gets 3GB of video storage per user account, and existing Premier Edition customers can enable the service immediately from the Google Apps control panel.