Google Marketing to the Enterprise
August 10, 2009
I usually find Larry Dignan’s view of information technology spot. I was not too surprised with the argument in his “Google’s Campaign for Apps Doesn’t Address the IT Data Elephant in the Room.” The key passage in the article for me was:
In fact, nothing in Google’s marketing toolbox—the viral emails, the YouTube videos and the posters you can plaster near the water cooler—are going to change fact that your corporate data is hosted by Google. If Google really wants to entice the enterprise it should have skipped the YouTube videos and allowed companies to store some of their own data.
I agree that Google has not done a good job of addressing the “Google has your data” argument.
Google has some patent documents that describe clever ways to have some data processed by Google’s systems and other data on a client’s servers with the client retaining control over the data. I am sitting in an airport at 4 50 am Eastern and don’t have access to my Google files. My recollection is that Google has been beavering away with systems and methods to provide different control methods.
The problem with Google is the loose coupling between the engineering and marketing at Google. The push to the enterprise strikes me as a way to capitalize on several market trends for which Google has data. Keep in mind that Google does not take actions in a cavalier way. Data drive most decisions, based on my research. Then group think takes over. In that process, the result is a way to harvest low hanging fruit.
After some time passes, engineering methods follow along that add features, functions, and some robustness. A good example is the Google Search Appliance. In its first version security was lax. The present version provides a number of security features. Microsoft uses the same approach which has caused me to wait until version 3 of a Microsoft product before I jump on board. For Google, the process of change is incremental and much less visible.
My hunch is that once Google’s “go Google” program responds to the pent up demand for more hands on support for the appliance, Apps, and maps—then the Google will add additional features. The timeline may well be measured in years.
If a company wants to use Google technology to reduce costs now and reduce to some degree the hurdles that traditional information technology approaches put in the way of senior management, the “go Google” program will do its job.
Over time, Google will baby step forward. Those looking for traditional approaches to enterprise software will have a field day criticizing Google and its approach. My thought is that Google seems to be moving forward with serious intent.
I think there will be even louder and more aggressive criticism of Google’s new enterprise push. In my opinion, that criticism will not have much of an impact on the Google. The company seems to be making money, growing, and finding traction despite its unorthodox methods.
Will Google “win” in the enterprise sector? I don’t know. I do know that Google is disruptive, and that the effects of the disruption create opportunities. Traditional enterprise software companies may want to look at those opportunities, not argue that the ways of the past are the ways of the future. The future will be different from what most of us have spent years learning to love. Google’s approach is based on the fact that customers * want * Google solutions, particularly applications that require search and access to information. That is not what traditional information technology professional want.
Stephen Arnold, August 10, 2009
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