Google Apps Premier Edition Launches, Widely Used

Tookis writes "Google's online productivity suite (Google Apps) has already replaced Microsoft products at more than 100,000 small to medium enterprises. Additionally, it's been deployed for serious work-related projects at two of the largest companies in the world. Product manager for Google Enterprise Kevin Gough was quick to point out that although the premier edition of Google Apps only just launched, it's already been adopted by companies like GE, Procter & Gamble, Prudential and Loreal. He goes on to describe the role of Apps: to augment, not necessarily replace existing IT solutions. Just the same, he says, the role of Apps can be powerful where traditional services may be too expensive. Says Gough, 'There's a large segment that's under-served by today's productivity tools. Production workers and retail employees for instance. 48% of all employees actually don't even have an email address. That's because the cost of hardware, software and maintenance has made it prohibitively expensive to provide email to employees.'"

Return of the terminal

Looks like client-server was a fad. The terminal is back, only now the mainframe is at another company and the terminal is called browser.

Re:Return of the terminal

Sadly, not much have happned on the usability front comparing the average form based input page and the 3270 terminal system anon. 1972. Chances are that people is going to be fed up with subpar performacne and cluncky interfaces and head back to the "fat client".

Have you tried using Google Calendar? It is by far the MOST usable calendar app I have ever seen. Forget about forms. It's the only calendar app I've ever used that's actually intuitive. I can simply type "Dentist appointment on 2/24 from 10:00am to 11:00am at 1315 New Hampshire Ave" and GCal parses all this info into the appropriate chunks (date, time, location, etc) and stores it.

Last time I looked, it's the fat client that's stupid here. Outlook or GroupWise makes me jump through hoops on their forms. Tab to date, tab to time, tab to location, click and drag little widgets. It's Outlook and Groupwise that are using 1972-style forms. All they've done is put some pretty pictures on the forms and made them largely mouse-based (which actually makes them HARDER to use than 1972-style dumb terminal forms!)

Bad user interfaces are unfortunately quite common, but it's not a fat vs thin client thing. Google right now is an interface innovator. I'll take GCal, with its ability to quickly type in an appointment, over Outlook or GroupWise any day.

Re:Return of the terminal

"Dentist appointment on 2/24 from 10:00am to 11:00am at 1315 New Hampshire Ave"

That dentist is no good. There's a much better one at 21st and K NW.

Re:Return of the terminal

Looks like client-server was a fad. The terminal is back, only now the mainframe is at another company and the terminal is called browser.

Which seems a terrible shame really - surely there are better ways of running an application over a network than via a browser. After years of using the network transparency of X11 I find this whole move to browser based applications disappointing. Sure, the X protocol doesn't work well over slower connections (it's too chatty), but really wouldn't it be better to just fix those issues (such as with FreeNX) or write a better system so that we can actually have full normal GUIs instead of whatever can be kluged into a browser? Given the prevalence of web based applications I guess the answer is no. My best guess as to why is that, simply, Windows lack of network transparent display and market dominance trained people to have low expectations. Browser based stuff looks good in comparison to what's generally available for Windows so people assume it is a step forward instead of the step sideways that it appears to be to me.

really?

Somehow, I'm having issue believing that number. 100,000? Maybe 100,000 companies have users that are using gmail accounts, but I just don't buy that 100,000 real businesses have switched over already, unless Jim-bob in his basement counts as a business...

Re:really?

Remember they offer a free trial until April 30th. I wonder if they're counting businesses that are using the free trial.

Re:really?

Any company prepared to trust the bulk of their communication and data to a third party with those terms of service is nuts anyway. Everybody seems to be overlooking the 'we can rip this service out from under you at anytime we feel like it' and the 'we can impose arbitrary restrictions on your use at anytime we choose'.

Re:really?

Lol. Microsoft has been doing it and is still doing it for years. People don't stop using Microsoft products do the

I knew someone would come up with this. The difference is, and its a massive difference is that Google can deny you access to your data at any time they choose. With MS you still have physical access to your files, free viewers and converters, Open Office.org etc to access the information contained within so while incovenienced you can still carry on your business. Google shutting out your account leaves you with nothing.

Re:really?

Everybody seems to be overlooking the 'we can rip this service out from under you at anytime we feel like it' and the 'we can impose arbitrary restrictions on your use at anytime we choose'.

Actually the same goes for people using MS Office. Microsoft can decide not to patch some flaw that essentially makes MS Office unusable for certain people (due to security reasons, for example). Microsoft can also raise the prices for updates to where it isn't cost-effective for many of their clients. They can 'push' updates that reduce functionality. In theory.

In practice, both Google and Microsoft won't do such things, because (1) 'ripping the service out from under clients' (as you well put it) just isn't good business, and (2) contracts. A contract with Google will ensure a certain service for some-odd years, just like a contract with Microsoft. No more, and no less.

However, you are 100% right about both of them - even if it is unlikely that these doomsday scenarios occur, they are possible. Entrusting your IT over to Google (by hosting it on their servers) or to Microsoft (by running their closed-source programs, and in addition being locked-in to them) is somewhat a 'leap of faith'. For those that value their personal autonomy, there are really only two options: in-house development, which is completely impractical for 99% of organizations, or using open-source software (as people reading this know already).

Yet, the Microsoft and Google solutions will, I predict, continue to draw the vast majority of businesses: Microsoft are already entrenched, and Google are so ridiculously cheap it seems a crime not to use their service.

B$

I call bullshit on the 100,000 number. This has mediaHypeFUD written all over it.

GE, a government contractor, will not allow a 3rd-party to have any sort of access to project documentation. Neither will GM, BoA, or the rest of the fortune 1000.

Google apps has its place, but it is not in any "enterprise" i've ever worked in.

bullshit or not

Google Apps seems like a really great idea for Universities. We spend SO much money on MS Office and related products. Graduate Students in my department had to share computers (6 to a PC) until this summer. Now we have crippled dell's which can barely run powerpoint, or do any significant work in Photoshop.

O RLY?

Production workers and retail employees for instance. 48% of all employees actually don't even have an email address. That's because the cost of hardware, software and maintenance has made it prohibitively expensive to provide email to employees.

Or maybe, just maybe, 48% of all employees don't need email to get their jobs done. I know, it sounds heretical, but let's be honest, does K-Fed really need email to operate that McDonald's cash register? Nah, I didn't think so either.

Very skeptical about these numbers

100,000 user ids have been sold? Or 100,000 companies each with multiple user ids sold? I am guessing it is the former. These are the low hanging fruits folks. Microsoft has actively pushed bulk and unlimited licensing to most of its big customers. If their company already has unlimited number of MSOffice licenses, you need to provide a pretty powerful reason for them to start paying 50$ per user per year. Right now I dont see the compelling business reason to do so.

Retail Employees with Email?

Why would you want your retail employees to have email? Is it really necessary for the cashier at Wal*Mart to have their own email address when they're probably only going to work there for a few months?

Re:Retail Employees with Email?

Not all retail workers are short time employees. At my local Publix I see the some of the same people year after year. Then again they offer benefits and tend to treat the employees pretty well from what I hear.
Email is useful even for a casher. They check it from home and get their schedule, information on company events, and so on.
They my not use it at the store but they may still use it.

Security breach coming to a company near you!

Can't wait to see what happens when the 1st security breach happens and companies that THOUGHT they were storing their documents online safely, actually find their documents floating across the internet. Will kind of put a damper on this whole online storage thing. Think hackers aren't gonna sink their teeth into this????

Bottom line, real companies don't want their confidential documents floating around willy-nilly in the "cloud". And to have 2 systems (one desktop based for confidential, and "cloud" based for non-confidential) is just too much hastle to have to remember and maintain.

Data under Google's care - Guaranteed?

My one primary concern about data services like this that rely on another company storing your businesses data and communications off-site under their control is what recourse does one have for loss of data? Is Google guaranteeing their storage? If so, how is the guarantee backed up (so to speak)?

that massive sucking sound?

It's all that money flowing back out from Microsoft's Orifice.

open source + web services vice

MS is in a vice no doubt. Isn't it already now when Ballmer said that "MS would catch up to Google in six months?" heheh.

And they're stepping up the "veiled threats" against open source software.

Oh, I give it about 3 to 5 years before MS goes superSCOva.

Re:open source + web services vice

Microsoft is not going supernova. Not in 5 years not in 10 years.

Let us take for example the vendor lock and switching costs. You can get decent oil change for your car for 20$. 10$ if you really clip coupons and are willing to let Joe's QuickLube to do it. And most car dealers charge 30$ for the very same service. Still there are millions of car owners who would happily pay 30$ to the dealer willingly.

Now take a look at how difficult it is to use a competing product instead of Microsoft. The switching costs are high and there is very heavy vendor lock. In 5 years, the marketplace might become more level. Finally the corporations might start demanding true interoperability. MS might lose market share. From 90% share in Office and 80-85% share in browsers and 95% share in computers, it might go down. How low will it go, I cant guess. May be to 50%. May be to 33%. The profitability also might suffer. But after all is said and done, MS will still have decent market share and a decent profit making business. Look around, IBM is still around, isn't it? It was the IBM dinosaur around which nimble Microsoft ran circles around. 10 years from now there will be three dinosaurs, IBM, MSFT and GOOG. And there will be another nimble player.

Wow!

Does this come standard on Vista? Oh I hope so!

Not at P&G

I have a few contacts at P&G having worked there before, and a quick survey of them shows noone has even heard of P&G testing this. Companies like P&G and GE have their software go through fairly extensive testing before releasing it in the company. The amount of spreadsheets that would have to be converted would be impossible to fix and it would place the documents out of P&G hands, something they would never allow to happen.

Re:Not at P&G

The amount of spreadsheets that would have to be converted would be impossible to fix ...

This is exactly the point I was trying to allude to in an earlier post I made when I mentioned Excel's formula language. In any large enough organization, there is likely enough business intelligence coded into Excel spreadsheets by people who no longer work there that trying to convert all of it onto another platform would be ridiculous.

I've seen the argument that a spreadsheet is a spreadsheet, and if you're starting from scratch, I think that is true. But a Google spreadsheet is not the same as a 20 page, fully formulated, linked to external datasources (via ODBC, SQL on the backend anyone?) Excel monster. And speaking of which, what do you do if you're using Google apps and you want to link to external data in say, an SQL server? Excel has great built in wizards that will link to just about any data source imaginable. Is Google going to port all of my financial data over there for me so that I can "access it from anywhere?"

great

Google Apps seems like a really great idea

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Camila17
everything about me, and more at radio internetowe [gsm-ok.pl]

It replaces POP3 accounts, not Microsoft Office

I'm employed in a company that switched to Google Apps for Domains, and it works great. But it replaces our old e-mail service.

The calendar part is getting better and better, especially the arrival of syncmycal has improved integration with MS Outlook, but it surely doesn't replace it, yet, because Google Calendar cannot sync with everything, yet.

We're looking forward to use docs and spreadsheets, but it's still just an add-on to our existing in-house software.

For the small company

Will probably be a hit among smaller companies that can stand the fact that their data will be stored elsewhere, and possible never be deleted.

As I see that it would be hard for Enterprises, of any moderate size, to store any remotly sensitive data on googles disks. In their case it would mostly be used as a way to work together, and then one might ask if gotomeeting or any other internet meeting service + openoffice/office/staroffice is a better solution. I guess time will tell...

um.. dupe....

http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/02/22/143025 6 [slashdot.org]

Lies and damned statistics

Google's online productivity suite (Google Apps) has already replaced Microsoft products at more than 100,000 small to medium enterprises.

Uh, replaced? I seriously doubt that 100,000 companies are now exclusively using Google Apps. I seriously doubt that 100,000 companies even deployed Google Apps company-wide. I'd be astounded if that statistic was anything more than someone looking at the weblogs for Google Apps, seeing 100,000 unique .com domains, and concluding they had 100,000 companies using their product. It's probably one or two people at each company, logging in from work to their gmail account, and working on their resume in Google Apps.

Check out this cheesy bit of spin:

Additionally, it's been deployed for serious work-related projects at two of the largest companies in the world.

That's a relief. The industry was worried it was being used for managing the office football pool.

Exchange yes, Office no

I am actively advocating Google Apps for Your Domain in my company as a replacement for our aging Groupwise mail and calendar system, rather than going for a far more expensive Exchange based solution.

However, I wouldn't dream of (or rather I would dream of it, but then daytime reality kicks in) suggesting Google Apps as a replacement for MS Office. Not at this point.

I could easily imagine that the numbers in the article refers to how many Google Apps for Your Domain clients they have (most of which are free), but almost all of those will be as a Exchange replcement, not Office.

Re:Exchange yes, Office no

However, I wouldn't dream of (or rather I would dream of it, but then daytime reality kicks in) suggesting Google Apps as a replacement for MS Office. Not at this point.

That really depends on your needs. I know of some small offices that have relatively light office application needs and would be just fine replacing MS Office with Google Apps. For any major company it is clearly a no go because Google Apps just doesn't have all the required functionality. Indeed most of MS Office's market won't be able to make the switch. MS Office has a very big market though, and a lot of users simply don't need all the functionality it offers. Those that can get by with Google Apps instead may be a very small percentage of the MS Office market, but they may still be reasonably large numbers in absolute terms.

I wish

I used to be very excited about this idea. I only have windows boxes around for when I need to run office, usually for excel. OpenOffice does a damn good job nowadays, but there are still some things that have issues.

I was using the google aps for a while and was very happy about the prospect. However, on many occasions, right when I really needed to get at something, google aps were simply broken. I'm sure you've seen gmail get into a confused state where you cannot log in. This usually results in you having to clear your browser cache and delete all cookies, though this doesn't always work. Google makes some change somewhere, and then after a while they figure it out and fix it. But they never tell you when to expect downtime. Google just rolls out new code whenever they feel like it and you wind up suffering.

Until they start to run their services more like a production IT shop, I can't see how anyone can run a business on it.

My first spreadsheet on Google..

I used it first time and you can't even plot a graph. Why would someone use this?

Been using the free version for months

I've been using the free version for months for my small business and it has been awesome. We are a growing company and I think the free version will suite our needs for many years. There are some additional features I'd like to see but they keep on adding more so I expect them in the near future.

We have two locations and this helps bridge the gap between the offices ( I also use Hamachi for remote connectivity)

So far we use gmail, cal and just starting to use docs and spreadsheets.

One big problem I have...

with Google Spreadsheets is that theres a 500KB size limit on pre existing documents - every spreadsheet I have around here exceeds that limit. From what I can see, Google Spreadsheet is worth using, I jsut cant use it.

Anyone know if they have removed this size limit in the Google Apps version, because they certainly havent removed it in the free version.

complete and absolute BS (SOX)

it's complete and absolute BS for one reason only: SOX compliance. Anyone running their business off of google apps is just begging to be run out of business by the government. There is absolutely no way, with the way google runs their apps, that you could ever meet security or retention requirements for SOX compliance.

Re:complete and absolute BS (SOX)

This isn't a problem because

1. Small businesses don't care about SOX.

2. Google will beef up the service to meet the needs of publicly traded companies, thus making the Google option so much cheaper than managing the IT part of SOX compliance on your own that companies will have no choice but to use a hosted service.

3. SOX is going away because it blows and it's driving companies away from our stock markets.

Sorry dude, you're misinformed

1. Only publicly traded companies have to comply with SOX. I don't think the situation you described has anything to do with SOX.

2. I can see your point that Google apps may not be compatible with SOX, but this would matter only to publicly traded companies.

3. You haven't been paying attention to the news. I've seen multiple stories about SOX causing many small publicly traded companies to delist from the stock market and go private, and how it's causing businesses to skip the US stock markets when it comes time for them to do their IPO. In other words, yes, there's a general feeling that SOX is driving business away from the US. Here's an example article I found through a very quick search: Is SOX Driving Small Companies Overseas? [cfo.com]

SOX seems to be too onerous on most companies, and only the largest ones can properly put up the effort to meet its requirements. I'm not an expert, so I'm going by what I've read and heard on the news, and by the huge amount of IT changes that SOX has caused at my work. I'm as anti-corporate as they come, and I can see that SOX is having some negative effects. I think he's right that something is going to change.

100,000 is a small dent

NPR talked a bit about this last night, and Microsoft Office has a 350M user base, so Google's 100k of converts is just 0.03%. There are always a portion of any company's customers that are dissatisfied and will try something else; Google just cherry picked the easy ones and the rest are not going to come that easy.

Not a bad thing

I wouldn't want this to be where all of my business resides, but as an adjunct service, it's great. I can create (or import) a document, and access that document from anywhere with a good internet connection. Browser independence is a plus. That means if I'm in somebody elses office, we can collaborate.

I wonder how easy it will be to move these documents from Google to my computer and back? That's what would make it a good tool. I also wonder what format options I might have. Time will tell. I use Open Office, Word Perfect, Abi Word and MS Word (97, 2000 and XP) on different machines. Are all those formats supported? If so, it'll fill a need for me right now. Bye Bye Sneaker Net.

Hmmm, what does it cost?

I scanned the comments, I scanned the website, but I was unable to find a figure. What does Google Apps cost now? For private people, for small businesses?

Offtopic: Can you manage several domains under the same setup? I mean, what if I want to use gmail to host mail on, say, three domains. user@dom_a.com should be the same as user@dom_b.com and user@dom_c.com - Is that doable now?

And then their network connection went down. DOH!

But seriously, the 100,000 is a total joke. I challenge Google to actually show how they came up with that number and give the names of the companies. I'm sure they wouldn't, citing "confidentiality"...funny, coming from Goggle.

Google Economics

What google have in economic terms done is to create a large segment in the advertising market, a bit like free TV with adverts. They can keep adding new toys to generate the advertising revenue, but it's not the same thing as selling software. As far as selling apps are concerned, this offering is weak. They have higher costs than Microsoft because it's a hosted service. Hosting is a low return capital intensive business, not a money spinner. It only works if you are hosting something new and different. There is not a lot new about cut-down Office-type applications. Sure there's a market, but it's for people who don't really want to pay. I'm not sure the hosting part of the offering really works. What could be really interesting is an appliance with these apps and a bit of storage. You could get an appliance like that for a few hundred dollars and provide the service to 20, 50 people with no Windows Server or Exchange Server CALS; and not even a Windows desktop. Now that would be interesting.

Google gaint Exchange NOT Office

I still dont understand why everybody compares Google Apps to MS Office. Is it not more a MS Exchange replacement. My MS Office (including Outlook) works fine WITH (not against) Google Apps. My bet is Google Apps will move towards file synchronization... and you will be able to do that through the API.... and trhe API is the key.. not the AJAX interface. for example we are developing an FREE open source "business application platform" (think salesforce.com). Our first application is working tightly integrated with GOOGLE APPS. (applicationexchange.com)

Re:Skeptical

Hundreds of thousands of companies have, in the past day and a half, switched their entire office infrastructure

in related news: Chairs Seen Flying in Redmond

Re:No real threat

I agree. It's just like IBM said about the PC, that it wouldn't make a lot of money, that it didn't matter what operating system they used, and if that little company wanted to license the OS instead of selling it outright, what's the big deal.

And if that isn't enough proof, it's like those audiophiles said about the LP record. It sounds SO MUCH better than compact discs and it's not like people will ever put music on their computers.

I also remember someone saying that the iron horse would never outrun the real horse...

Duh.

Re:No real threat

You Linux freaks can foam at the mouth trying to convince anyone that Linux + open office will be widely adopted by corporates. People that actually work in corporates and support infrastructure, will never let that amateur junk in.

Some of us linux freaks don't care whether corporates adopt it or not. I'm a little curious about the source of your hostility though.. what did oss do to get your panties in such a bunch?

Re:Skeptical

This service has been available (in beta, for free) for probably a year now, so [Google] aren't claiming that 100, 000 companies switched in a day.

Re:No real threat

You Linux freaks can foam at the mouth trying to convince anyone that Linux + open office will be widely adopted by corporates. People that actually work in corporates and support infrastructure, will never let that amateur junk in.

But they have no problem with the professional junk that Microsoft puts out, right?

I use LaTeX for pretty much all my document needs so I don't have a real vested interest in OpenOffice.org vs. MS Office, but it really isn't fair to call OO amateur. It did start life as a commerical product. And is the opposite of commercial really amateur? gcc is not a commercial compiler, but it certainly not amateur and has been used in lots of serious situations.

Re:No real threat

LaTeX ? Yes, very widely used, indeed (sarcasm)

Try submitting to a scientific journal without it, or try writing a textbook (you ever wonder why they all look the same?), and you'll get back a list of organizations that you can pay to TeX your document for you. Since LaTeX easily outputs to PostScript and PDF it's also very easy to hand off your document to people that don't understand TeX.

Re:Content scanning?

Oh give it up man, do you really think that your "private content" is that interesting? You are more than likely giving yourself far too much credit. And if your private content really is that interesting, then you're the type of person that has already invested in a very secure infrastructure, and would likely not have the time to be bitching about a new service that you don't have to use on an internet site.

Re:No real threat

OK, but are you sure that they really want Win + MS Office, or would they be happy with something that offered the same functionality and a familiar interface (no steep learning curve)? Sure they would. There's a lot of debate here about Linux etc. being too 'hard' for the non-geek user - from my direct experince, it's a valid point. However, this is less applicable in a 'big company' environment where most PCs are (or should be) pre-configured and then locked down. I use, and have installed for clients, both XP with Office and *nix with OO. Once you've got things setup OK, (takes similar time with both) there's little difference in training and support. People familiar with Office can move to OO quickly. Also, when the function is compelling enough, and the learning experience not too tough, non tech-professionals can adopt new functions & applications quickly. Do you think that all the people using MySpace, YouTube, Flickr etc. are all geeks? For a more 'serious' application, what about salesforce.com? Many of the posters here seem to want to dump this debate into the same old black/white right/wrong box. ONE of them is more insightful - this stuff is complementary, not a return to the old 'dumb terminal' days, just another possibility to be evaluated and used where appropriate.

Re:No real threat

You might want to tell Peugot that, as theyre rolling out 20k _desktops_ with SUSE on, and you also might want to email the city of Munich, they are migrating to Debian. At least you should have a quick chat with these people: http://www.computerweekly.com/Articles/2007/02/21/ 221941/kingfisher-migrates-to-red-hat-linux.htm [computerweekly.com] (I know you said end users, I just could not resist).