<p>There's no doubt Google Apps has traction. Lots of startups and even larger companies are aboard. What's in question is how many of those people are paying for the Google Apps for Business version (as opposed to the freebie) and whether there's enough action there to support third-party service providers that resell and integrate those apps with outside applications.</p><p>According to Cloud Sherpas, there's plenty of money in that marketthe Atlanta-based Google (GOOG) partner says its Google Apps-related revenue more than doubled from a year earlier. And it's brought on Chris Arroyo, former vice president and chief financial officer at Capgemini (CAP), as CFO to help it attack more of that big-business opportunity.</p><p>There's a lack of objective numbers on sales of Google Apps and rival Microsoft Office 365, but one thing is clear: Companies don't want to pay a ton for productivity applicationsa market dominated by Microsoft Office for years before coming under attack from less expensive (and less feature-rich) software-as-a-service (SaaS) offerings like Google Apps.</p><p>Cloud Sherpas was Google's Enterprise Partner of the Year in 2011, so it's hardly a neutral observer here, but its claims nonetheless bear noting. The company says it logged $12 million in revenue last year on Google Apps and $10 million on Salesforce.com (CRM), and this year expects to hit $45 million in total revenue across both businesses. Even discounting its merger last year with GlobalOne, a Salesforce.com partner, that's impressive growth.</p><p><a href="http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-10-15/surprise-there-may-be-a-business-in-google-apps">Keep reading...</a></p>