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Google Apps to Become Paid Service
FredDC writes "Business Week reports Google Apps is becoming a paid service soon for companies who wish to use it for their domain. Disney and Pixar are reportedly thinking about switching to Google Apps instead of using Microsoft Office. Could this be the end of a monopoly? Or the start of a new one?"
WTF? Why is Pixar considering Google Apps? Isn't Apple's .mac service up to scratch?
Anyway, I've been using Apps for my personal domain for quite a while. It's pretty great for a freebie - just point your mx records at google, create an admin account and google takes care of everything else. Setup catch all accounts, gmail accounts for different users, calender, gtalk, etc are all there.
But I won't continue to use it if it costs anything. Like I said, its great for a freebie.
There are shills on slashdot. Apparently, I'm one of them.
Wait, does this mean a Google product is out of beta? Stop the presses!!!
Sony ha
Buying Microsoft Office = expensive.
Using Google Apps = US$ X per year.
Downloading Open Office = free, except for the bandwidth (which you need to connect to Google Apps anyway).
If I was in charge of a small company, I know what that company would use... and what solution would be the best to preserve it from our friends at the SPA.
The right to offend is far more important than the right not to be offended. (Rowan Atkinson)
I'm sorry but it's been a long while since I have felt comfortable with Google's 'do no evil' mantra. They are a billion dollar company with shareholders to report to. I wouldn't be suprised if in 5-10 years we see the same sort of slashback here we see now for MS applied to Google. I particularly don't like the way the toolbar trawls my PC for information to report back to the Googel servers. It was at that point I stopped seeing them as saviours and more like the circling vultures they may well turn out to be.
All your email belong to us.
This is only going to become a paid service for those who want to host it themselves. If you are going to continue to use Google's server's then the price remains free.
I cant imagine a real company allowing its data to be housed outside its control. But if google sells a server in a box that houses all the apps needed to meet most of the documents needed, it could make sense. IT takes care of maintaining this big server. And all the other people use stripped down pc with no USB dongle, no print screen, no copy-paste that runs a simple browser to create the documents and with a full audit trail for all printed copies, it makes sense. Really. Companies are paranoid about security. Currently any document in the intranet server can be saved to usb thumb drive, cut/paste into emails, or forwarded via emails ... If Google or any company can promise a full information lock-down to the management, they will get a sympathetic ear.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
The use of Google Apps will not create a monopoly. Rather, it will precede a shift to real open formats (i.e., not Microsoft's XML implementations) which are application agnostic. Interfaces, rather than applications, are what must be open to truly benefit consumers.
I'll be happy to speak about our Contnent Managment, Office and software as a service solutions. Give me a call toll free or visit my website for more info.
Can a day go by where google doesn't make frontpage for doing something millions of other companies already do (and are frankly better at)
thanks
Google is doing what Microsoft has dreamed about forever - turn computer platforms into monthly revenue generators. This has been the source of erotic dreams for Microsoft executives forever. I don't care how cool a web application is, there is just something fundamentally wrong with having my productivity depend on someone else's servers.
In some measure, this is already the case - how many people at work haven't searched online for solutions to problems encountered at work. This being one form of online dependence. This is a far cry from depending on an outside server. Think about the exposure to DoS attacks that this makes your company? Corporate war is just around the corner. Get a botnet to bring down your competitor's internet and their entire workforce productivity drops to zero.
Additionally, just wait until some security hole opens up and a lawyer's documents are hacked into because they are being edited online.
This is just a bad, bad idea on its face.
Simply because a tiger hasn't eaten your face yet doesn't mean it won't in the future. We should be as suspicious of google as we are of any other big software company. Just because they have a catchy bumper sticker slogan doesn't inoculate them to the temptations of corporate culture.
Is it sad that I am more likely to recognize you and your posts by your sig than your name or UID?
The answer to that question is in your own sig.
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
Let's pretend $MegaCorp dumps MS Office and implements Google apps. What the fuck am I supposed to use to write my documents, spreadsheets and now presentations if I'm in a car, plane, train, backwards country -- wherever I can't jack into the Net? Notepad?
This won't even put a dent in the M$ office suite installed base, because locally installed apps still work when the network is down and/or having problems.
Later,
-Slashdot Junky
.
Landfill Mining Co.
Managing the (Un)natural Resources of Tomorrow
I have read many times that its the lack of MS Exchange on *nix desktops that is the major stumbling block for a lot of businesses that have considered switching. If so, its fine by me if Google can offer an alternative to Exchange functionality for business users. Its much more likely that any google solution will be *nix compatible than anything MS will offer in the future.
Now, if there was only some way Google could wrest control over the games industry from Microsoft and let game developers develop for alternative platforms a bit easier. My gaming habits are the only thing keeping me from leaving XP completely. I am not likely to stop gaming, I can't/won't play consoles, and the future looks pretty MS monopolistic to me unless something changes. I think there are a lot of people like me out there too.
"The first time I got drunk, I got married. The second time I bought a chimpanzee, after that I stayed sober" Arian Seid
if using google is cool, then consider me miles davis
RTFA. As has been said above, it's not about Office, it's about Exchange.
Seriously, for all the Web-based e-mail/office applications, I'm surprised at how little effort or thought is put towards migrating legacy data. SugarCRM and Gmail at least have some import capabilities (Outlook contacts in CSV format) but what about all of your old mail, calendar items, to-do/task lists, Excel macros, and Access databases? Every time one of my colleagues suggests yet-another-Web-based AJAX office suite, I shake my head and wonder how they expect existing organizations and individuals to switch without some sort of well-planned migration strategy?
Look, I'm not expecting some nifty migration wizard to automagically convert my existing data to $shinyWebbyOfficeSuite (I've been through enough Novell to Microsoft migrations to know that never works) but I'd like to see one of these would-be Office alternatives make a concerted effort to bring me on board besides marketing and hype.
body massage!
As much as I hate to admit this. Excel has 1 feature that I've found has saved me personally at least a week.
Pivot Tables.
Until something comes along to rival pivot tables, Excel isn't going anywhere.
Where are the pedants decrying the spelling of the word "innstead"? Shame on you all!
Hang on a second... I think I just poured mockery on myself.More like... nerdular nerdence!
I think virtually any office environment would be insane fools to replace Microsoft Office with Google's apps. I'm really stunned that nobody on /. has pointed out the glaringly obvious problems:
1. The Internet
If for any reason the company loses it's internet access (this NEVER happens) that company has NO access to any of their internal data yet they still have to pay for that non-existant access. One fiber cut or lightning strike can knock out internet access for days for many companies. If they were running Google apps they'd basically have to completely close up shop for that period.
2. Performance
These are web apps, so they're inherently slow. Google Docs and spreadsheets slows to a crawl with very large documents. Gmail in an account with thousands of emails is painful.
3. Data integrity
Google encourages users in the software to store all their documents on Google's servers, not locally. Is google willing to guarentee those documents availability? Are they doing regular backups? I happen to know that they don't. My gmail account has spontaneously lost mail, for example.
4. Security
Security on Google apps is feeble and basic, you might as well publish all your internal information to the web.
5. Features
Google apps only have a tiny fraction of the features of MS Office, or even OpenOffice. Unless you're only doing very basic tasks, Google's apps lack features you are currently using.
I want to expand on this last point. The feature-set of the google apps is INCREDIBLY sparse compared to MS Office. Gmail is nice for webmail, but it's SLOW and has only a crude filtering mechanism (no folders = retarded) nowhere NEAR as sophisticated as Outlook, or any of a dozen proper email applications. Many of Google's own employees complained quite loudly when the company switched from Exchange to Gmail due to the lack of features, particularly in regards to Google Calendaring, which sucks. Their spreadsheet app apparently has no graph or reporting capabilites. None.
The whole ASP concept is basically snake oil. Vendor lock-in at it's absolute worst.
A replacement for Outlook and Exchange, maybe. But "Google Apps for Your Domain", the service in question, isn't an office suite.
It is:
It is *NOT* a replacement for Word, Excel, or PowerPoint. That is 'Google Docs & Spreadsheet' (minus the presentation software, which is rumored to be coming soon.)
Another non-functioning site was "uncertainty.microsoft.com."
The purpose of that site was not known.
I dont see them killing off MSO, nor becoming anything other then a 'fad'.
The professional world in general isnt ready for 3rd party hosting of their daily bread and butter apps, yet. Someday perhaps, but after being stung from the last attempt at a return to the concept of ASPs, not many will step up to the plate again for a while.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
They aren't trying to replace Office (though if they include the Google Docs and Spreadsheet and PPT thing I'd be happy) - they are trying to replace corporate mail systems. Harvard
.mac (which needs to allow something.edu before its going anywhere and it'd be nice to have a Windows/*nix port of Backup). Personally I think the best solution for Harvard at least is to shut up and spend money and buy additional space, and redesign the webmail client (just keep pine around).
http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=516036 has been looking into it and I'd be thrilled if they do use a GMail like interface because the current FAS webmail system is a piece of tripe. (I logged into it once and then went back to SSH and pine - some departments don't even have a webmail interface because the damn thing is so bad).
The added storage space and some savings you'd get from moving to Google Apps is nice but a lot of students (well in Physics,astronomy anyway) still need to be able to SSH in and start a remote X session, which I don't see happening soon, so they are still going to have to spend money on their own servers. As the article points out Google isn't without competition - Windows has Live @edu (run away) and there is
Reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled.
Does anybody know what the implications of Sarbanes-Oxley are for doing this? After all, Disney is a public company, and SOX has a number of regulations regarding how public companies are permitted to store their data. Are hosted apps ok?
This is only going to become a paid service for those who want to host it themselves. If you are going to continue to use Google's server's then the price remains free.
Where do you get that information? It wasn't in the article.
When I signed up for Google Apps for Your Domain a few months ago, they said that they would eventually start charging for new user accounts, but user accounts that already exist will remain free when they transition to a paid service.
Does that mean Google is going to drop the "Beta" testing? Who charges for beta apps?
This could be quite nice. It could potentially meant that, if all documents are in a web-based tool, my underlying platform becomes less relevant. I could use my company-issued POS, or I could use my MacBook. Who cares, so long as I have a browser?
OTOH, I'd have to rely on internet access. I couldn't work on my documents in a plane.
ck Microsoft? With the help of Google? Who would have thought? That's why Gates is getting a little jumpy...
All pass beyond reach of medicine. None pass beyond the reach of love.
I can't find anywhere that it says the service is to become a paid service. The article talks about everything but that. Now I suspect that some or all of it MAY become non-free, in fact the sign-up makes that pretty clear. It also says that people who sign up during the beta will continue to get the service for free.
Only thing in this article about paying anything though is that Microsoft has a competing product for $39/mo and that Google employees get "paid massages", maybe whoever wrote the summary was thinking of paid messages or something.
This can't create a new monopoly (as it currently exists) since you can save your documents to your own machine in ODF, MS, or PDF format. The monopoly is in the lack of interoperability of file formats - not in applications. That's the whole point of the ODF standard - to allow different applications to operate on a file. Google Apps goes even one further since there are even more formats available. Now, if Google prevented you from saving your documents then that would be a different matter.
Graham
Come on people, we've seen this game before. Disney/Pixar are conveniently "evaluating" Google Apps so that Microsoft will be pressured to lower their prices on MS Office.
This is the same thing that happened with Linux in the late 1990's. Companies would leak and/or hint that they were doing a serious evaluation of Linux, and Microsoft would suddenly swoop in with deep discounts. In the end, though, Linux actually did take a chunk of that market away from Microsoft, which is why Microsoft now goes to such great lengths to publish a bunch of lies about TCO.
I think the MS Office alternatives are now where Linux was in the late 1990's -- some serious evaluations, some early adopters, but the big migrations are probably still a few years away.
Tired of FB/Google censorship? Visit UNCENSORED!
Google Apps are not going to replace Office any time soon.
1) A web based interface does not stack up to a native gui app.
2) Google Apps are not full featured.
3) Security. Shopping list on google servers - sure, why not.
My personal financial information - not a chance.
Corporate Data - You are kidding me, right?
4) Availability - no internet connection. no Google Apps.
What happens if you are unhappy with Google's offerings, and want to move to another platform? How do you get your users emails and calender events out if your email solution does not support IMAP or give you access to the raw data in a proprietary format?
We are not even considering Exchange as we have 500GB of emails for 200 employees with the largest mailboxes being well over 10GB, but whatever we use, we want the option to move to something else if we need to. Is that an option with Gmail?
Those key bindings date at least back to Apple Lisa (1981), and probably Xerox PARC before that. It is no surprise that they can be found in many different environments today.
Come back in five years, but don't be so sure you'll be the one laughing.
Back in 2002, five years ago, Google had only been profitable for a couple of years, and was starting to make it into the top-five most visited web sites in some countries. Its non-www-search offerings were in their infancy: it had just acquired Deja News (in 2001), and was starting up Google News around 2002.
Today, www.google.com is the most visited site on the web. GMail is one of the best-known e-mail services in the world -- not bad for a service that was only born about three years ago. Large numbers of people don't know the difference between Google Groups and Usenet. Novel services like Google Earth are grabbing the attention of the Internet-using public. Google's profits are going up and up, and their novel business model is proving very effective.
Say what you will about Google, their obviously-overvalued stock, and their increasingly dubious "corporate ethics" (what happened to not being evil?). They are without doubt the biggest business success story in IT in the past five years. If anyone's going to topple Microsoft's power base -- whose applications really aren't that great in many cases, remember -- it's going to be a heavy-hitter like Google.
If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.