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As Google releases Web Apps Premier, European enterprise director Roberto Solimene discusses its plans for hosted services
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As Google releases Web Apps Premier, ZDNet UK's David Meyer talks to the company's European enterprise director, Roberto Solimene, about the past, present and future of hosted office applications.
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Talkback
I don't know how anybody else feels on Google, but I will be honest here... Yes, their search engine rocks, kicks some serious butt, as does their GSA's, very useful for businesses, but for me that is all I can use, and it's hard for me to use that. Everything you do on Google, is logged somewhere, accessible to someone. I don't know if I can trust Google (as they probably know, knowledge, knowing what people are looking for, is $$$) with my documents on their systems. Yes, it is convenient, but I also feel that is a serious risk to everyones information. Everything you do on Google is tracked and analyzed.
I suppose this a criticism that can be made of hosted apps in general. Of course, the other thing to bear in mind is that Google's big competitor here is Microsoft. Take your pick.
I agree that for large organisations who need to completely protect their information using google apps could be a security risk. The benefit i feel that this solution offers is mainly for small to medium companies who cannot afford, manage or implement an office application suite for collaboration. Even some large organisations such as ours we have a major issue getting investment to create a global intranet or licensing office for all our employees, webmail is always an issue with MS licenses and calendars are always difficult to access for other employees when working remotely.
So i agree this is not a solution for everyone but this is a massive benefit to businesses who need to create a more efficient working platform with collaboration, email, calendar, project management tools without the massive investment.
I can understand why people have the cost of licensing issues when it comes to Microsoft. Microsoft is a tad bit expensive, but I feel you don't pay for the application but you pay for the potential use of Microsoft support. If that's not the reason to pick Microsoft (which in a business prospective, I think, would be) -- then companies can always go open source for their application collaboration. Want office capability? Use OpenOffice. Want Exchange capability? I've never used it, but I did a quick search and there is OpenGroupWare.org -- and I am pretty sure that there are others. A lot of open source projects, including the Linux kernel, have corporate backing, so it's not like the projects are going to die tomorrow and you/ your company are going to be SOL. The only downside to Linux/ Open Source (at a technical standpoint) is installation and maintenance. Microsoft applications make it so easy since most applications are uniform in design and configuration (most can be managed through MMC). I think I am just rambling on, I hope I made some point out of this :P.
I'm surprised this suite is only available hosted @ Google. I understand the Google Appliance gives an enterprise Google search running inside the firewall. Wouldn't this suite be far more attractive to large enterprises if it were all available as an appliance?
Of course this loses the benefit of Google managing the hosting, which is a huge benefit for SMEs. But I'm sure most large enterprises would never let their data live outside the firewall except over a secure link to an employee's device. I know mine won't.