WebProNews

Ever see the animation in which a figure wears down his fingers, arms, and then head while typing quickly?  IT admins risk becoming that figure if they've got to create too many accounts in Google Apps.  Or they can avoid the bloodshed and use the new Open Source Google Apps Provisioning Toolkit.

    Google Provisioning Toolkit

Granted, there are other ways to add users, and Google doesn't try to hide or ignore them.  In fact, on the Official Google Enterprise Blog, Scott McMullan notes that usable methods include "CSV file upload via the control panel, programmatically using the Google Apps Provisioning API, or via commercial identity management products like Sxip Access or PingFederate."

Google's new Toolkit is pretty fast, though, with a claimed speed of 20 account creations per second.  Also, the open source nature of the Toolkit - it "should run on any system that supports Apache, PHP, and Python, or any system that supports the VMware Player" - is bound to appeal to some people.

On that note, while it's a sort of apples-to-a-truckload-of-oranges comparison, we can't help but wonder what potential users will make of this development in light of the EC's new $1.35 billion fine on Microsoft.  Universities, small portals, and SMBs - Google's targets - might be a little quicker to embrace anything undeniably "open." 

Finally, as long as we're discussing openness and honesty, it wasn't just Google that worked on the Toolkit; SADA Systems played an important role, as well.