If you want to stop using Google for email, but want to keep the domain in Google Apps for whatever reason, you can set up a FastMail account and then configure

If you want to stop using Google for email, but want to keep the domain in Google Apps for whatever reason, you can set up a FastMail account and then configure Gmail to forward all of your email to FastMail. Yeah your email still goes through Google's servers so it's not completely ick-free, but at least you don't have to deal with using Google for email on a day-to-day basis anymore.