Google Apps Leave Beta

Today Google announced that they're removing the "beta" label from Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Docs and Google Talk. They said, "We've come to appreciate that the beta tag just doesn't fit for large enterprises that aren't keen to run their business on software that sounds like it's still in the trial phase." Quoting the NYTimes: "'Obviously we haven't had a consistent set of policies or definitions around beta,' said Matt Glotzbach, a director of product management at Google. Mr. Glotzbach said that different teams at Google had different criteria for what beta meant, and that Google felt a need to standardize those. ... Practically speaking, the change will mean precious little to Gmail's millions of users. But it could help Google's efforts to get the paid version of its package of applications, which includes Gmail, Calendar, Docs and other products, adopted inside big companies."

Comments

Re:Beta

[raddan]

Paying for software that comes with guarantees (uptime other SLAs) also ensures that an IT department can pass the buck when the thing stops working. This is a big factor in IT purchasing decisions, and the reason why lots of IT folks pay the exorbitant costs for support contracts, when most of the time, you really could just stock the parts or run the thing yourself, often at a considerable discount.