Microsoft vs Google in the Government
December 3, 2010
I am sitting in snowy England. Chaucer did not document London in the grip of winter and pilgrimages to Tesco. I had some time to read “Microsoft Lashes at Google GSA Cloud Contract.” I am not sure who has what contract. I am pretty far removed from the US government’s procurement activities. What does interest me is this statement:
“There’s no doubt that businesses are talking to Google, and hearing their pitch,” Tom Rizzo, senior director of Microsoft Online Services, wrote in a Dec. 1 posting on the Why Microsoft blog, “but despite all the talk, Google can’t avoid the fact that [oftentimes] they cannot meet the basic requirements.” Rizzo then accused Google’s enterprise offerings of “inadequate product support, failure to provide a roadmap, poor interoperability with other [lines] of business applications and limited functionalities.” Large public-sector organizations, he added, “have consistently valued Microsoft’s cloud offerings not only because of our deep understanding of enterprise organizations, but also for their ease of use, security and privacy capabilities.”
Assume this is accurate. If so, then the rhetoric seems to be shifting from casual commenting to specific weaknesses. What this means is that the present economic climate is growing tiny shoots of hostility. I think a few of these will sprout into mighty oaks of anger. Should be entertaining and useful as a way to see how large firms compete today. What constitutes a “bad company”? A question I shall ponder.
Stephen E Arnold, December 3, 2010
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