Google searches for enterprise credibility

Can Google's array of cloud apps, together with its forthcoming Chrome OS, persuade IT leaders that the days of server-based computing are over?

With the recent successes of its Android platform and Chrome web browser – building on the popularity of its search engine – Google is already a huge force in the world of IT and business, and the firm is going from strength to strength. The company now has its eyes on the enterprise sector, Google head of enterprise for the UK Robert Whiteside told Computing.

Google has said it is taking a “100 per cent web” approach to all its services and solutions, meaning its applications will be browser based and hosted in the cloud, rather than in a desktop environment.

While many consumers are happy to delegate the hosting of their data and services to a cloud provider, enterprises have traditionally been reluctant to relinquish control of their resources, particularly for those solutions that carry sensitive data.

However, Whiteside said that Google has been in the enterprise cloud business for seven years, since it launched email service Google Mail and its business applications suite Google Apps for Business. The company now has about three million businesses using at least one of its services, with Rentokil and Jaguar Land Rover being among the most high profile of its customers in Europe.

Whiteside predicted that as web browsers continue to evolve, particularly when HTML 5 is introduced, most businesses will realise that using applications from within a browser as opposed to on the desktop will benefit them.

“I think browsers have advanced dramatically in the past few years. They really are very powerful, fast and secure platforms for applications,” he said.

He added that it was for this reason that Google released its Chrome web browser, which he said was designed to be highly robust and secure, with each tab in the browser sandboxed.

“Two or three years ago, a browser app looked second rate compared with a desktop application, but that is not the case any more. A browser application can be very stable and rich, and certainly in the Chrome browser, you are able to run enterprise-mission-critical apps in the browser, without any concerns,” he said.

However, Jeff Mann, principal analyst at Gartner, believes that Google’s approach is idealistic, and enterprises are not ready to relinquish control.

“Google takes a very purist approach. Its message is: cloud is the future and that is what you should do. But the enterprise wants control, so for Google that’s a bad thing. Instead, it is focusing more on end user innovation and letting people do what they want to do.”

However, Whiteside said that the company is already seeing considerable evidence of businesses being ready to let Google run applications for them in the cloud, pointing out that three million businesses, albeit mostly small companies, are reliant on Google’s email service.
Moving email to the cloud is one thing, but building on that will be a very tough feat, said Forrester analyst TJ Keitt.

“In the highly commoditised email market, Google has proven itself a formidable competitor to the likes of Microsoft and IBM, in both the public and private sector,” added Keitt.

“Its email offering is robust, has a good track record and is priced to move. If you’re talking about using Google for its productivity and collaboration apps, though, that’s a slightly different story.”

He explained that there are feature gaps in Google’s Apps for Business, such as in Google Docs, where there is no functionality for scripting, macros and the ability to use large spreadsheets. Keitt said this will mean it will not be the solution of choice for many large organisations that already use some of those features in Microsoft’s competing solutions.

“Likewise, their teaming software – Sites – is not on par with Microsoft SharePoint in a number of regards, for example, around metadata and workflows. So, it will be difficult for many CIOs to fully embrace Google. They might be able to take on portions of the Apps offering – such as email – but not necessarily all of it.”

Security
There is still a widespread perception among IT leaders that applications that reside in the cloud are less secure than software running on their own internal hardware. However, Whiteside insisted that Google customers should have no worries on that score.
“Every company chooses to manage different documents in different ways using different technologies, but we feel a 100 per cent web experience is an incredibly secure experience,” he said.

He added that Google uses a concept called sharding, where documents or files are stored across a number of servers, so no one disk drive contains enough information to make that document readable.

“So at the infrastructure level, our service is incredibly secure. At the same time, the way we communicate between the browser and the datacentre; we use lots of different security technologies, such as Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS).”

He added that CIOs only have to look at how most data breaches happen today, often via a lost USB memory stick or a CD taken off the premises by an employee, to see the advantages of placing data in the cloud.

“[Most breaches] happen because firms are fragmenting data away from a secure enterprise application to service the need of the employee and their working life,” added Whiteside.

Third-party apps
One advantage that Google has over many of its opponents is the open source nature of its Google App Engine for Business. Whiteside explained that the company
has opened up and externalised its platform to allow third parties to build applications in the same way that Google built Google Apps.

“They could be companies developing software themselves for their own needs or third parties looking to take other products to market – not just Google engineers building on the Google platform, but other developers doing the same.”

He explained that the Google Apps Marketplace showcases a range of applications that third-party companies have deployed. They include project management applications, ERP-related applications and other business software.

“Google is not necessarily going to produce an ERP solution, as it might be better for an existing ERP vendor to provide a solution on the Google platform or for a new company, or maybe even just two or three employees — that’s all it takes to be able to write a really clever application.”
He added that by being on Google’s platform an application is scalable, always available, costs less and uses fewer resources than most companies would otherwise need to deploy applications that scale to enterprise needs.

Chrome and Android
Whiteside said the company intends to move forward with its Android operating system, which has proven popular in the smartphone and tablet market, while also working on another operating system, Chrome OS, due to be released soon.

“The Chrome browser and Chrome OS have been designed to work best when used with a screen and a keyboard, while Android works particularly well with devices where you interact with the operating system through a touch screen, be it a smartphone, tablet or larger device. It is hard to say how things will develop in the future, but at the moment, things tend to be this way,” he said.

He is optimistic about the prospects for Chrome OS, which he said will be much cheaper for firms to manage and support than Windows.

“If your only desktop application is a browser, it may be that this lowers the total cost of ownership. It makes sense to take an expensive operating system out of the equation, which effectively just hosts a browser, and Chrome OS will give you just that. It will allow you to boot up a device in seconds, you won’t need to pay for the operating system and all the applications you need will be available via the web.”