gmail does give you the ability to connect via POP or IMAP so storing your emails off line (even drafts) is no issue. Companies that use google apps simply needed to educate their users how to use this type of connectivity.
Google calendar also lets you sync easily to outlook although they have not (as far as I am aware) provided syncing apps for other calendering apps.
The biggest issue will be for google docs and other google apps for which there isn't an offline equivalent.
