As Google and Salesforce Close Dance This Google Interview Gains Importance
June 24, 2008
In my Google files is an interview with Dave Girouard, the top Googler for the firm’s enterprise division. Mr. Girouard spoke with John Zyskowski of Federal Computer Week in February 2008. The give and take ran under the title “Google’s Dave Girouard on Google-ization.” You can read the story here. When I first read it, I did not see much that resonated with my research.
Now, as Google and Salesforce.com shift from casual dancing partners to going steady, Mr. Girouard’s remarks have a new significance to me. Let me highlight three points that caught my attention against my deeper understanding of what Google and Salesforce.com are offering organizations.
First, the search appliance is not the end game. Other applications have pulled Google deeper into the enterprise. The thought that crossed my mind is that Google’s search appliances connect to other Google enterprise applications. At some point these appliances could be used to create a different type of infrastructure that unites the organization, Google, and the appliance.
Second, Google’s unique selling proposition has two points: cost and capability. As the economy weakens, Google and Salesforce.com are poised to offer increasingly diverse applications that sell themselves. Customers come seeking Google and Salesforce.com. If that model continues to work, incumbent on-premises application vendors will face higher marketing costs and customers who go looking for an alternative.
Third, Mr. Girouard suggests that more cloud-based products and services are coming from Google.
Several questions came to my mind:
- Is Google likely to move from close dancing to a more intimate relationship with Salesforce.com? The tie up would make sense and help pave the way for Google to make a play for a larger share of the multi-billion dollar enterprise systems market.
- Has Google decided that Salesforce.com’s multi tenant approach to applications has sufficient technical merit to complement Google’s own software and systems? For a period of time, I thought that Google perceived the multi tenant inventions of Salesforce.com as trivial. Maybe I was wrong and multi tenant technology is indeed a big deal for Google.
- Will Salesforce.com’s existing customer base be candidates for Google’s data management services? My reading suggests to me that Google has more data base horsepower than it talks about.
With data management looming as one of the major challenges for organizations, Salesforce.com might be a useful stalking horse. Read the interview and let me know your thoughts.
I tried to get Google to participate in my Search Wizards Speak series, but like Autonomy and Microsoft, my request fell on deaf ears. Could there be some reluctance to let me probe into such matters as data management? I can only formulate my opinions based on chunks of information such as this Federal Computer Week interview.
Stephen Arnold, June 24, 2008
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