With the appearance of the first Chromebooks — cloud-based laptops running the Chrome OS — ZDNet UK tracked down Google's Chrome for business expert, Rajen Sheth, to find out why he thinks this technology should matter to firms.
The week before Microsoft's major IT conference, Google announced the first production Chromebook models from Samsung and Acer.
For a monthly fee, you get laptop hardware and a browser-based operating system, Chrome OS, locked down to the cloud.
Partnerships with VMware and Citrix mean support for virtualised Windows applications, and Google says this concept offers better security and far lower management costs than running the real thing — an approach aimed straight at the heart of Microsoft's strategy.
We asked Rajen Sheth, group program manager for Chrome for business, exactly what organisations get with a Chromebook and why they'd consider switching from Windows.
Q: How does the Chromebook approach differ from thin computing or Sun's plan for the network computer — or just a netbook running a browser?
A: I think this is larger than the launch of just a couple of hardware platforms and a new operating system. It's a fundamental transformation in business computing.
There are three big trends that have revolutionised server-side computing in the past few years. First, the cloud — companies have gone from not even thinking about cloud applications to everybody having a cloud strategy. Secondly, the browser is many times faster in just the past few years. Clients in the browser can be richer than on the desktop. Finally, [there is] desktop virtualisation, moving applications off the desktop and onto the server so they can be accessed everywhere.
What's missing? The desktop. The benefits of the cloud stop there. Desktop management is very, very tough. Gartner reckons management for a desktop costs between $3,000 and $5,000 (£1,900 and £3,100) per year and higher for a laptop. The desktop takes administrative resource from the moment you buy it. Cloud is very simple to set up and administer. It updates itself all the time. You don't have to keep doing it.
And security. The desktop is very, very hard to secure from viruses and loss of laptops. People go through so much to try to recover that data, yet 60 percent of corporate data still resides on people's desktops. Chrome OS is transformational in simplicity for users and administrators, in security — it turns things like antivirus on its head — and in speed.
But when a business buys a Chromebook, what are they getting that's different from buying a notebook and running any browser on it?
The enterprise package is a combination of a Chromebook, the web-management console and full workplace support. Subscriptions start at $28 with constant software updates and, every three years, new hardware. Originally we were thinking a shorter term but a lot of our customers said there is definitely a fixed cost to moving to new hardware. Three years works well for them.
The ultimate bottom line is that the total cost of ownership [of a Chromebook] can be less than half of what people pay right now.
Dell will lease you a laptop for $30 (£17) a month but you're just getting the hardware. You have to get antivirus, you have to get backup software, you have to have management software. The ultimate bottom line is that the total cost of ownership [of a Chromebook] can be less than half of what people pay right now.
What is simpler to manage on a Chromebook than on a Windows notebook?
In a typical enterprise, adding an employee is a task that takes hours. With Chromebook, it's literally a matter of seconds. We're planning to make set-up a lot easier.
That's just for setting up a user, not for creating policies. What management features do you have in Chrome — is that as rich as in Windows?
Right now, it's user and user management as well as authentication management and application management — deploying applications across your domain and pushing them to your desktops. Policy management for Chrome includes what the desktop looks like and does, and what people can do to the device. That's just the start.
There are a lot of different things we could add down the line...
Talkback
I have been slowly migrating to the cloud over the course of this year and WILL be updating all office PC's to Chrome asap. One to begin with to ensure that all is working as it should and then across the board. The simple fact is it will save my company money at the same time as integrating all services into one simple platform.
Imagine. Your local telephone exchange has its copper cable torn out by thieves, it'll take three weeks to get the exchange running again. You're committed to the cloud.
What happens to your business?
Those savings don't look so good anymore.
I have used JoliCoud on a small netbook for quiet sometime, its more or less the same. I fail to understand why people have to buy a computer that is just touted as looking good.
Substance over style guys, dont let the large companies blind you with shiny stuff.
And what if your office gets infested with hard drive eating aliens?
@David McLachlan
I'm not aware of any hard drive eating alien infestations, however I do have two clients that suffered the local exchange problems (on two different exchanges). Google "probability"
to sceptical
So what does your old style desktop PC business use for communications, Pony Express or smoke signals?
ChromeBooks will allow you to log in without the Internet, and applications that are cached locally (like Google Apps, Google Mail etc.) will run without the Internet. You can also access any corporate servers (eg. web based Outlook Web Access) you have in your office via the office WiFi - only you can't sync anything with the Internet until the Internet is restored. All of this is the same with PCs as with ChromeBooks. Your business will be hit the same way whether you use ChromeBooks or desktop PCs.
@SPM
First, I don't have an "old style desktop PC business", I was referring to my clients.
Second, I'm in the UK so I have zero experience of the Pony Express or smoke signals.
Third, you seem to assume that my clients are working in a corporate environment -
"You can also access any corporate servers (eg. web based Outlook Web Access) you have in your office via the office WiFi".
A business that relies on Internet connectivity is screwed when that connectivity is compromised. A business that does not have the same reliance is merely inconvenienced.
I'm merely pointing out that not all businesses have the resources to throw money at a problem until it's fixed. The Cloud is to often touted as the answer to all computing questions, sometimes it's the wrong answer.
I'm not sure that this concept differs significantly from the old concept of "Network Computing" as touted by Citrix and Sun 10-plus years ago. In those days I was involved in selling equipment, servers, desktops and software. It was always a concept I believed in (I'm an old mainframe guy, it's easy to sell me the benefits of centralised storage and applications with a smart desktop).
10 plus year ago, there were some people interested, but the commercials didn't stack up, especially with a mobile workforce. These days connectivity is cheaper, faster and approaching ubiquity, which addresses one of the problems. I expect that there will be many takers for the concept and practice, but there will be many who see the risks outweighing the benefits. It has always been thus.
Anyway, good luck to Google and Cloud Computing - I really don't want to carry £1000 of kit around with me - maybe it'll catch on this time, maybe not. I remember back in the days of the cyclical centralised versus decentralised computing models debates that eventually decentralised (what eventually becam client-server) would work, that it was just a matter of time and then people would realistically be able to choose an architecture that suited their individual circumstances. I suspect that SaaS, the Cloud and thin clients will achieve a viable business model either this time round or the next and then we will have another string to our bow.
Having seen the problems with, mainframe, thin client, etc, I have to say I'm with "sceptical" on this one. If the network is dead, a normal PC can still perform to a limited extent. When the cloud dissipates nothing can be done.
My take is that skeptical's internet downtime concern is the same as it would be for a blackout. In today´s world (wifi etc) no more than a temporary inconvenience.There will be teething problems for the cloud, but this is the way to go, no doubt
I can safelt say in the UK, our internet is nowhere near reliable enough to work 100% of the time, which is what businesses need - it's embarassing.
Only this weekend the supposedly groundbreaking Virgin cable superfast broadband service I have, completely failed, for my whole area - It was down for a day, which would have been a whole day's work wasted if this had been a company with that internet.
Yes of course one day we may have enough backup internet services that make that worry redundant, and we may have RELIABLE internet, 100% of the time.............but that hasn't happened yet, as britian has been woefully slow in investing in the internet, which is why in 2011, we all still experience the usual 'what's happened to the b****y internet?' when we've lost the connection, or it's stalled for some seconds or minutes.
Of course you might have more luck with your connections over there, in which case I see no reason why one can't store documents in this way.
However - I would have thought it suicidal for businesses to not also keep their data on their own storage - because who's to say these cloud computer servers won't fail themselves? Who's to say a bomb won't blow up the servers?
And also, are we heading for a future, where governments or criminals can have easier access to a company's files, as even the stuff we would have just kept on our hard drives, gets put onto a server that CAN have it's security breached?
@sceptical Use a 3G connection until internet is back up, normally never a problem. I have been using 'the cloud' for the last 18 months without any problems and will be getting chrome books going forward.
In another 10 or 15 years there will be no more media files, CDs, MP3s, DVDs or BluRays.
All your media will be watched from a TV or computing device that acts a dumb terminal for
cloud content services. There will be zero chance of piracy and content providers will be able
to charge as much as your pocket book will allow.
If your not following their rules they will just not allow you to be employed and therefore disconnect your cloud service for lack of your ability to pay.
All software will reside on the cloud service. All cloud providers will regulate the software
and your access to it. Similar to Apple App Store and Google Android Market for mobile devices.
If your on the lower end of the economic ladder they will allow you access to media with advertising inserted and marketing information tracked officially.
Your cloud service account will log all your activities from age 4 to death.
Every document you ever worked on. Every place you have ever been through the GPS tracking of every device you ever use including the mobile phone chip they will eventually make so small it can be implanted in your body and attached to your
auditory, optical and speech nervous systems. Every book you have ever read. Every software you have ever used and what you did with it.
Every Internet site you have ever visited. Every Internet post you have
ever made. Every person you have ever interacted with and everyone they have interacted with and their activities.
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