Analysis | 17 Oct 2008 :
The cloud computing paradigm is rapidly becoming a well established phenomenon on the computing landscape, and Google is embracing this technology as the way forward to compete with its nemesis, Microsoft. However, is Google's expansion into providing services, applications and appliances a threat or an opportunity for resellers?
Google's growth has been phenomenal, reaching revenues of $16.6 billion in just nine years - a feat that took Microsoft 23 years.
If the history of the distribution of electricity is to be repeated by the service-orientated cloud computing, we may very well see a paradigm shift where IT facilities are distributed and consumed just like any other service metered and paid for accordingly. Readers interested in pursuing the distribution of electricity simile should read Nicholas Carr's The Big Switch (ISBN: 0393062287).
While some critics have dismissed cloud computing as pie in the sky, Dave Armstrong, Google's EMEA head of marketing, maintains that Google Apps are easy to use and cost less than deploying in-house versions. He points to significant savings made by firms such as Taylor Woodrow, the construction, facilities management and engineering services subsidiary of Taylor Wimpey plc. It migrated 1,800 users to Google Apps with estimated savings of over £1 million. Google Apps lets mobile workers access services on any internet-ready device.
Examples nearer home include fresh food producers Cully & Sully, which found Google Apps fitted in very well with its mobile work force and obviating the need for any office or in-house technical services. Other Irish firms using Google Apps include TicketSolve and Vizrez.com.
Armstrong sees strong opportunities for the channel not just in supplying search appliances from Google but also in guiding business towards the correct decisions around both search facilities and cloud computing solutions.
He says now is the time for resellers to engage and embrace the cloud computing technologies such as SaaS which Google maintains will come to dominate the IT infrastructure. He maintains that, once some bigger organisations adopt this technology after due diligence, it is inevitable that many smaller organisations will follow in their footsteps. While this premise depends on a robust broadband infrastructure that is still coming into place, there are always fallback situations and other slower means for accessing the Internet.