Pleasing Google's Tech-Savvy Staff

An anonymous reader writes "Douglas Merrill, Google Inc.'s chief information officer, is charged with answering that question. His job is to give Google workers the technology they need, and to keep them safe — without imposing too many restrictions on how they do their job. So the 37-year-old has taken an unorthodox approach. Unlike many IT departments that try to control the technology their workers use, Mr. Merrill's group lets Google employees download software on their own, choose between several types of computers and operating systems, and use internal software built by the company's engineers. Lately, he has also spent time evangelizing to outside clients about Google's own enterprise-software products — such as Google Apps, an enterprise version of Google's Web-based services including e-mail, word processing and a calendar."

Comments

Re:I wish our IT was like this.

[houghi]

I feel with you. The several IT departments I wored with have the same attidute of not wanting to change anything and forbid everything that could hinder them.

The worst I have seen was where I requested an email to be send from a a system. I knew it was possible. What was even worse was the fact that they had bought the CRM package for a LOT of money, because it was able to do so.

So when I asked if it would be possible to implement it, the answer was that I needed to fill out a request. I told them I could only fill out the request if I knew how much money it would cost.

Catch 22. The procedure on how to do things was written and nothing could change that.

I have seen IT departments that were unable to remove certain rights from people if they would not need them anymore, because there was no procedure for it.

I myself had, due to human error, access to each and every place in the building. More then anybody else. When I mentioned this, they told me that because I got it, somebody must have OKed it so I have the right to it.

IT departments just LOVE procedures. Basicaly because they are so easy to put in logical yes and no questions and answers. They should start with some debugging of their procedures and realise that the real world is more then if, then, else.

It seems that the person at Google has done just that.