Despite an embarrassing recent outage that left many Gmail and Apps users disconnected for days, Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) remains gung-ho about boosting its business subscribership. More than 3 million corporate users already use Google Apps, but security and reliability concerns persist. In an interview with Fortune, Google's enterprise division president, Dave Girouard, describes how the company is addressing these concerns.

Despite the recent headlines over the Gmail outage, the email system was up 99.984 percent of the time in 2010, Girouard said. On average, users experienced seven minutes of downtime monthly. According to Girouard, information is more secure at Google than on users' own computers, but to give users greater peace of mind, two-factor authentication is available with Apps. 

To lure Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) customers away, Google touts its origins in the web and its ability to move quickly to meet customer demands. "We're not trying to retrofit anything of the past," Girouard said. "Microsoft is a great company but their applications were built in the world of a single PC and a single user. What that amounts to is we can go faster."

Working with just one code base, Google can be more agile than other companies, Girouard said.  Applications and new features can be rolled out within months or weeks rather than waiting for a major upgrade release.

Google is championing the mobile operating system market as well. With the Android OS, it is looking to take a piece of the enterprise smartphone pie from Research in Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM) and Apple.

For more:
- see this interview with Dave Girouard at Fortune

Related Articles:
Gmail outage highlights cloud risks
Google unveils two-factor authentication for users
Google removes planned downtime from Google Apps SLA