Google announced another security acquisition today, picking up Postini for a reported $625 million.

While Gmail is a widely used consumer tool, it remains to be seen what kind of traction the email service – and the rest of Google Apps - will gain in the corporate world.

The consensus from bloggers, so far, is that it’s another smart acquisition by the Mountain View, Calif.-based web giant, which is showing it’s serious about securing its ever-expanding range of functionality.

Here’s other commentary:

“(VP and GM of Google Enterprise Dave) Girouard continues: “Like Google Apps, Postini’s services are entirely hosted, eliminating the need to install any hardware or software.”

But (he) fails to mention other potential risks and inhibitors to full-fledged SaaS, including dependency on the network for mission critical apps, dependable scalability, lack of customization…to name a few.”
- “Turbo” Todd Watson, IBM, On Demand Business Blogs, “Google acquires Postini,” July 9,

“Postini is best known for its managed (”hosted,” “on-demand”) spam filtering service, but that’s not what attracted Google. Gmail and its Google Apps cousin already have sound spam filtering technology - they don’t need help from Postini.

What Google needed was a way to round out its Google Apps story with solutions for its customers’ policy, compliance and archiving/e-discovery needs. Google was already partnering with Postini to provide this for Google Apps customers. Presumably the experience was a positive one and Google simply wanted to own the technology and people.”
- Richi Jennings, Richi’s Blog, “Google acquires Postini,” July 9,

“So what’s the deal with just another acquisition? Google is making bounds and leaps to create and synergize a global communication platform online. This will be huge. I mean really huge.

What’s next for Google? We will probably see a web conferencing acquisition in the next few months. That’s the last component that I see Google is missing.”
- Jonathan Dingman, Google Inside, “Google acquires Postini,” July 9

“Does this validate the “in the cloud” model of scanning?

I wonder how long MessageLabs will remain separate. They recently spun off Star their UK ISP for business.”
- Roger, Roger’s Information Security Blog, “Google buys Postini,” July 9

“Google’s decision to acquire Postini for $625 million makes sense for both companies: Google benefits by acquiring robust technology to protect its messaging and Apps infrastructure, and Postini benefits by expanding its reach to a potentially much broader audience.

That said, how will Postini’s customer base view the acquisition? One of Postini’s strengths has been that it processes messages in memory and doesn’t maintain a copy unless the customer turns spooling capabilities on, which was a key reason that Postini did so well early on in the legal vertical. Will the Google acquisition be perceived as changing the level of security and privacy that Postini customers have enjoyed given that Google is perceived, perhaps wrongly, of mining data quite aggressively?”
- Michael D. Osterman, The Osterman Research Blog, “What to make of Google acquisition of Postini?” July 9