Austin-based cloud apps startup Spanning, which provides a backup service for Google Apps, just launched a new version of its service (Spanning 3.0) which includes a feature I.T. admins are sure to love: a health monitor for Google Apps. The new dashboard shows the status of a company’s Google Apps system, including problems, errors, possible causes and suggested fixes. Day-by-day reports are available, too.

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Cloud storage is no longer in the early adopter phase. Businesses have adopted Google Apps so wholeheartedly that it only makes sense for Google to capitalize on this chunk of the market.

All the hype and excitement aside, Google will need to overcome some serious challenges if it’s going to succeed. Here are five things Google needs to do to make GDrive a success and to tap multiple markets in the coming year.

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Austin, Texas-based startup Spanning has embraced the concept of cloud computing so much that its product is a backup service for Google Apps — completely hosted and run from Amazon Web Services. The idea of backing up one cloud service via another was intriguing enough that I asked Mike Pav, the VP of engineering at Spanning, how he does it

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Although Google Apps might seem like a simple platform, it’s definitely one of the most prevalent cloud options as it is used by over four million companies worldwide and counting. Thus, a group of seven independent software vendors have formed an alliance, which they boast is “a first among Google Apps Marketplace vendors.”

Officially dubbed as the Cloud Alliance for Google Apps, the group is comprised of a series of business and technology partnerships designed to make it easier for Google Apps users to select and implement complementary business applications.

The seven aforementioned vendors consist of Cloud Sherpas, Expensify, Insightly, Okta, RunMyProcess, Smartsheet and Spanning.

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Austin startup Spanning Cloud Apps didn't plan to seek venture capital, but the buzz surrounding cloud technology changed founder Charlie Wood's mind.

"We wanted to grow the company organically, but we realized it would take us years to do that, and in the meantime the market would pass us by," Wood said. "So we decided to raise money and step on the gas."

Now, thanks to a $2 million investment in April from Foundry Group of Boulder, Colo., 1-year-old Spanning Cloud is hiring engineers, sales people and marketers, with a goal of doubling its 10-person staff by year's end.

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I wrote a blog post yesterday about my move to the cloud. It has gotten 234 comments so far and another 49 on Hacker News. It's pretty clear from reading the comments on both places that moving to the cloud is something many have done, many more are doing, and a few are resisting. It's also clear to me that it is the future

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