Google Apps Premier Edition faces rough acceptance
By Ruben Francia
If you think the market will pick up Google Apps smoothly then think again. This web-based office suite like any other hosted software has an inherent technology drawback. Until this inherent technology drawback is resolved Google Apps will have a rough time finding acceptance.
The launch of Google Apps Premier Edition last week has been welcomed by IT chiefs as potentially offering a means of delivering office productivity software at low cost but experts believed the acceptance will not rest on cost.
Jeffrey Falk, director of product development at The Members Group says his company, which has about 150 people and revenues in the $50 million range, would consider Google Apps as a replacement for Microsoft Office mostly for the cost savings. But, he added it would have to meet a number of stringent requirements first.
“If we could find an ironclad solution that would deliver a quick time to market as far as the learning curve for us and we could overcome the hurdles of security and become comfortable with that, Google Apps has some legs,” Falk said.
Security and control is a big issue. I am not suggesting that non-hosted applications are particularly safe. But at least with Microsoft Office, you can push out the latest fixes across the organization, lock down user access privilege and nail down the network perimeter to try and prevent anything nasty getting in or important getting out.
Just think about this. When you hand over corporate data to a hosted provider you also hand over the ability to keep it safe. You no longer have the ability to protect it yourself. As of this present, Google doesn’t offer any security beyond the user name and password, so setting up defense in depth like encryption, rights-mediated access controls, centrally enforced policies and auditing is practically impossible.
Ade Bajomo, head of IT strategy and systems at Pearl Life, said: “We would probably take a wait and see approach to ensure that they have the infrastructure to deliver the appropriate level of service and security commensurate with the expectation of our organization.”
While Google’s applications may be a threat to Microsoft in the future, large businesses aren’t likely to switch soon.
I personally don’t expect that Google Apps Premier will displace Office, but I do think it has a good chance of getting a slice at Microsoft’s market share. I doubt Google’s road to Office domination will be anywhere near as easy as you make it out there.
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February 28th, 2007
Google Apps is much more about competing with MS Exchange then MS Office. And here in this case its very powerfull.. specially because of its API. For example we are now developing an FREE open source “business application platform” (think salesforce.com). Our first application is working tightly integrated with GOOGLE APPS. Check it out if you are interested. http://www.applicationexchange.com
February 28th, 2007
Hi Ruben,
Google has partnered with Sxip Identity to address the security concerns you mention above — centralized user management, access control and password login. Sxip Access provides secured, controlled identity and access management for APS, which includes:
* Centralized user management: maintain centralized user control by tightly integrating with existing enterprise corporate directory infrastructure such as LDAP or Active Directory
* Provisioning/ Deprovisioning: users added or removed from a designated group in the corporate directory are automatically added or removed from Google Apps.
* Single Sign-On: when users attempt to log in to Google Apps, Sxip Access sends a secure, identity SAML token as a login credential. No usernames and passwords are sent over the internet.
In addition to Google Apps, Sxip Access supports numerous other software-as-a-service solutions such as Salesforce and Postini. For more details see http://www.sxip.com/sxip_access
February 28th, 2007
Thanks for bringing this up Lori Pike.
The partnership of Google with Sxip Access is a strategic moved and aimed to address application hosted security risk. This may have an impact on the acceptance but does not entirely erase security concern as online transaction is always couple with the notion of having the highest security risk. Also, acceptance of Google Apps will not only be about security but will always boil down to the market level of trust.