You are probably aware that Google has an ever expanding collection of products. From Maps to Analytics to YouTube and a little known search engine to name just a few. But it is rare that Google directly asks for money to use their services (usually they are happy as long as you look at adverts).

As the name implies Google Apps for Business is for Businesses. Google clearly think this range of products can make money for your business, or at least make it more efficient. For that reason, they hope you'll be willing to pay for what they offer. But how do these premium versions differ from free versions and how can they help a business work?

All of the apps in the suite are hosted in the cloud which means you can access your email, documents, schedule and any other important information from anywhere with an internet connection. Of course it's not just you who can access these things, if you want to, you can give access to your colleagues meaning you can all work on the most up to date version of a document without the need for endless emailing attachments back and forth. On the downside you have to get your head around a new environment which can be time consuming itself.

Working in the cloud has the drawback of the risk of server downtime. To minimise worry about this, Google Apps for Business (but not free editions) provides a 99.9% uptime service level agreement and emergency support in case you're unlucky enough to find yourself trying to work during that 0.1% of the time. However if your own ISP isn't quite as reliable, you might find yourself without access to your work.

For any business that likes the functionality of Gmail, but doesn't want to use an @gmail.com address, Google Apps thankfully makes that possible and allows you to access your emails from mail.yourdomain.com. A business account also allows you to manage your email from a mobile device, access them from Outlook, customise security settings and get extra storage.

Calendar can be a big help with team organisation since you can view the schedule of other members of your team while sharing or integrating your own. You can even embed your own time table on your website to let clients know when you are available for appointments.

Google Drive lets you store up to 5GB of data in the cloud then allows you to open over 50 file types directly in your browser. If you need more space, another $4 per month will provide with 20 extra GBs of storage room.

Google Docs brings you fairly basic collaborative word processer, spreadsheet and presentation tools.

Creating a project website with Google Site requires no knowledge of coding. If you are happy with a fairly standard website for your company you could also use it to create your public website but otherwise this is an easy to use internal communication tool.

Groups is Google App's way of letting you share videos, documents and other files easily with your own predefined groups of co-workers.

Google Apps for business costs $5/user/month or $50/user/year. It includes all the features mention above and lets you strip out advertising and collaborate with ease. It might not be as robust as Microsoft's Exchange Server, but it is perhaps the easiest way to set-up online collaboration within an organisation.