Will the enterprise go for Google's apps?
132378
Also: Sneaky DNA analysis to be outlawed. Read these stories and more from around the Web on News.com Extra.
205103
(InfoWorld) - Google has enhanced its enterprise search device, doubling its capacity and adding new query capabilities. The Search Appliance's maximum capacity has been increased to 30 million documents, up from 15 million, Google announced Tuesday. The increased capacity comes via a software upgrade that also includes search query enhancements. The software upgrade is available to Search Appliance owners with an active support plan. All owners get access to the search query enhancements, but they have to pay extra if they want additional capacity. The Search Appliance, introduced in 2002, is a hardware box with Google search engine software designed to index and retrieve documents stored in enterprise servers. The Search Appliance model that can index up to 30 million documents is the GB-8008, the line's most advanced. Google doesn't disclose its price but its 30 million document configuration can cost "in the high six figures," said Matthew Glotzbach, head of products for the Google Enterprise unit. The intermediate model, the GB-5005, has a 10 million document capacity, while the entry model, the GB-1001, starts at US$30,000 and can index up to 3 million documents. Although the off-the-shelf GB-8008 now has a maximum capacity of 30 million documents, Google can make the product index more documents through custom configurations. "We can easily do a 100 million document system," he said. With this week's upgrade, all Search Appliance models have gained the ability to limit search results by a date range. For example, a user now can retrieve documents published in, say, the first quarter of 2004. The Search Appliance now also can narrow search results by number range. This might be useful for e-commerce companies, so they can let their customers find products within a specific price range. The purchase of a Search Appliance includes a 2-year support plan, which in turn includes software updates and telephone technical assistance. Google also has a smaller search device called the Google Mini, aimed at departments and small and medium-size businesses, as well as an enterprise desktop search application. Google competes with vendors like Autonomy Corp. PLC and FAST Search & Transfer ASA in the enterprise search market.
210855
Leading search companies Google and Yahoo didn&#39;t appear to have a presence at the CTIA Wireless I.T. &amp; Entertainment conference in San Francisco this week, but their startup competitors and smaller rival AOL were all angling for influence over mobile search.While&#160;Google&#160;and&#160;Yahoo&#160;have been pursuing what is perceived to be a large opportunity in mobile search and advertising, they&#39;ve met resistance from mobile operators in the U.S.&quot;Some are concerned about Google and Yahoo being stronger competitors, that [the operators] will become in effect the dumb pipe that the ISPs became,&quot; said Greg Sterling, an analyst following mobile search as part of a joint venture between Sterling Market Research and Opus Research. &quot;I think that&#39;s a valid fear.&quot;That creates an opportunity for companies such as JumpTap and Medio, which offer technologies to operators to present self-branded search tools for their mobile users.Operators tell JumpTap that they don&#39;t want Google and other online search brands to siphon away search traffic, and with it, the opportunity to earn revenue from advertising, said Adam Soroca, vice president and general manager of search services for JumpTap.But operators and startups face a steep challenge: Any mobile user can simply type the URL for their preferred search provider into a browser on a mobile phone. Users will do that if they think that the search from the online giants is better and if they want to access connected services such as mail and calendars, Sterling said.If the carriers manage to offer a better search experience, and one that may be easier to use because it is placed predominantly on the phone home screen, which the operator controls, then people may use it. &quot;But if their experience is lackluster or sub par or comparable, then they&#39;re at a disadvantage, because the brand strength and other tie-ins [from Google or Yahoo] are greater,&quot; he said.JumpTap said its technology is superior to other mobile search offerings because it uses proprietary algorithms that are mobile-specific. In addition, JumpTap knows the search history and location of users, so it can display more relevant results and advertising, Soroca said.In addition to the startups, competitors of Google and Yahoo in PC-based online search are working hard to prevent the search giants from dominating the mobile Internet. Microsoft is pursuing a foothold in mobile search and has an advantage through its Windows Mobile operating system. Phones running the OS feature a link to Microsoft&#39;s Live Search on the start page.Also, AOL made a handful of announcements at the CTIA conference about new mobile services. It even had a booth, which included a small poster for JumpTap in the area of the stand promoting a new AOL mobile search offering. JumpTap said it could not discuss any relationship with AOL. AOL could not be reached for comment.It&#39;s ironic that JumpTap may be fueling AOL, which ranks low among PC-based search offerings but has a strong brand. &quot;The scenario that operators are concerned about, [JumpTap is] enabling&quot; with AOL, Sterling noted. But from JumpTap&#39;s perspective, AOL looks like one more customer, he said.
593938
Search giant Google has updated a wide range of its web based services, making them easier to use for mobile users. While many enhancements are iPhone specific, they also ready Google's apps for the arrival of Android, Google's own open-source mobile software platform.
769982
Web Hosting by Google? Gary Price points to a new Google domain (&#8221;Googlehostedservices.com&#8221;) and speculates about whether Google will become a webhosting company. He also points to &#8220;Google Apps for Your Domain&#8221; as further evidence of this possibility. (This is the point in the post where the analyst says: &#8220;See how smart I am, I said something [...]
116798
Los Angeles, October 30: Google Inc plans to release a version of its desktop search tool for computers running on the Mac operating system from Apple Computer Inc, Google chief executive Eric Schmidt said on Friday.
290503
Deploying Google Apps could be a "career-limiting move for enterprise architects," analysts say.
2937
Can the browser meet the demands of on-demand? On-demand apps are by definition Web apps. That wonât come as a shock to enterprises because most of the latest internally deployed enterprise apps â besides a few client/server holdouts â already rely on the browser to deliver user experience.ADVERTISEMENTSolaris 10(TM) OS: Position your business ten moves ahead.Solaris 10 OS has arrived and provides even more reasons for the world's most demanding businesses to operate on this, the leading UNIX platform. Like the fact you can run Linux and Solaris applications side-by-side and run the same OS on SPARC(R), AMD Opteron(TM), and Intel processor-based systems. Discover more reasons and how Solaris 10 OS can move your business ahead today.
364959
(InfoWorld) - Google plans toÂ add a presentations applicationÂ to its Web applications suite on Tuesday, delivering on a promise made in April. The suite, until now known as Docs & Spreadsheets, will also be renamed Google Docs on Monday. Because Google Docs is part of the broader Google Apps suite of collaboration and communication applications, Google Apps users will also get the presentations application. The delivery of the presentations application will no doubt once again turn up the heat on industry discussions thatÂ Google Docs and Google Apps rival Microsoft's OfficeÂ suite of productivity applications and the Outlook/Exchange messaging platform. There is a key architectural difference between the Google and Microsoft suites: Google's is hosted in the search company's data centers while Microsoft's is packaged software designed to be installed on users' computers. TheÂ viability of Web hosted applications, with their software-as-a-service (SaaS) model, is no longer in question, although the consensus is that, while the future belongs to them, theyÂ will not completely displaceÂ traditional packaged applications. The issue is that, while Google and others like Zoho and Zimbra push ahead expanding and improving their SaaS suites, Microsoft is perceived by many to be dragging its feet in coming up with SaaS versions of its Office products. "Microsoft needs to take a careful look at its enterprise strategy for both messaging and the desktop," said Rebecca Wettemann, an analyst with Nucleus Research. Having delivered the presentations application, Google Docs and the broader Google Apps, which includes e-mail, instant messaging, calendar, and a Web page creator, have filled the only big hole they had in their ability to compete with Microsoft Office and Outlook/Exchange, she said. "Microsoft should be very concerned," Wettemann said. The benefits of SaaS communication and collaboration suites have already caught the attention of thousands of organizations of all sizes worldwide. Because the vendor -- Google in this case -- hosts the software, which end-users access via a Web browser, clients don't have to install the software or worry about upgrading it. Another benefit is that this type of SaaS application, designed to live on a hosted server is typically built to make it easy for users to share documents and collaborate on them. There are downsides to the SaaS model as well.Â Security concernsÂ exist about housing applications and data in a vendor servers. Availability and performance problems sometimes arise from server failures. It is also generally agreed that Google Apps and similar suites from other vendors don't have as many features and functionality as long established communication and collaboration platforms like Microsoft's Office, Outlook and Exchange and IBM's Lotus Notes/Domino. However, the SaaS suites generally cost significantly less. For example, Google Docs is free, while Google Apps has free versions and one designed for workplace use called Premier that costs $50 per user per year and includes more sophisticated features, including broader administrative controls for IT staffers. In the case of the Google Docs presentations application, Wettemann estimates that it has about 60 percent of the features in Microsoft Office's PowerPoint. Google officials point out that Google Docs and Google Apps aren't intended to replace Microsoft Office and Exchange, but rather complement them or be an option to users and organizations who don't have them. It's widely expected that Google Apps will soon gain a wiki component based on technology Google acquired almost a year ago when itÂ bought JotSpot. The presentations application, still in an early stage, will let users create presentations and store them in a central server, where they can be shared with colleagues, who can in turn edit them. Users will also be able to share slide shows of a presentation with others and chat with them in real time. They will also be able to import presentations created with Microsoft PowerPoint. The ability to export presentations to PowerPoint will be added later. Â
381219
Company's major upgrade of Google Apps poses serious competition to Microsoft Office.
90464
Google and Microsoft are duking it out for developers' hearts and minds.  But is Amazon the wild card?
375957
Will it be Google? Paul Allen? How about Qualcomm?
749480
Far from being a major player in IT security today, Google has ambitious designs on becoming a big name in the burgeoning hosted security market, begging the question, Will your organization ever be ready to let the world's largest information retrieval company safeguard your crown jewels?To hear Google talk of its plans for a multifaceted filtering system geared toward locking down data, you might have to answer this question sooner than you think.[ Talkback: What security tools would Google have to offer to make a serious play at securing your data? ]At the center of Google's security push are talent and technology brought on board in this year's acquisitions of message filtering specialist Postini and browser-based security software maker GreenBorder Technologies. According to Google officials, the company is confident that these pieces lay the necessary foundation on which to build significant IT security and compliance automation capabilities.In fact, Google claims it is now as committed to creating tools to help end-users defend their data as it is to helping them search for information online, according to company officials.But providing consumer-grade protection is one thing. Whether Google can successfully navigate the sophisticated security issues businesses face online is another. And the stakes could be significant, as a more security-minded Google Apps hosted productivity suite could give Microsoft a run for its Office desktop app money.[ For in-depth analysis of the Google-Microsoft app rivalry, see: Thin vs. Fat: Google's plan to kill Microsoft Office ]Postini as security platform Shrugging off doubts about Google's ability to rise to the business-worthy security challenge, Scott Petry, founder and CTO of Postini, which Google acquired in July, said the search giant's security footprint has only just begun to take shape."When Google bought Postini, and in fact when Postini built its underlying architecture, it was not all about keeping spam from reaching peoples' in-boxes," Petry said. "They didn't buy bits on a server; what they bought, and what we built, was a platform for creating a range of different services around protecting content and monitoring usage patterns."As evidence, Petry pointed to Google's recent integration of Postini's e-mail content policy management system into Google Apps Premier Edition, the first of a slew of online services Google plans to launch to help businesses and consumers safeguard their data.Added to the release were data analysis tools for identifying credit card and Social Security numbers in e-mail messages, as well as policy enforcement options such as encryption. Google also added protection against so-called zero-day attacks and expanded message archiving features.Additional security and compliance services already under development at Google will build on those capabilities, Petry said."We feel that we can build a broader umbrella by recognizing spam and malware before it reaches the network on one end, and by helping people monitor the outward flow of information on the other," Petry said. "We want to provide a stronger level of control for security over all types of content."Should IT professionals assume consumers and small businesses will be the only beneficiaries of Google's security push, Petry points out that many of the e-mail and content management features added in the latest revision were designed specifically for large businesses.Hooking the enterprise on hosted security Chief among the obstacles Google faces in making a security services push deep into the enterprise is the fact that many larger organizations are reluctant to buy into the hosted security model. Petry, however, remains undeterred, citing Circuit City, Merrill Lynch, Mitsubishi Motors, and the National Hockey League as examples of existing Postini customers. And with major security vendors such as Symantec making SaaS plays, the security services model shows signs of catching on.From building additional compliance policy enforcement and DLP (data leakage prevention) services to creating new malware detection and e-discovery tools, Google is examining a wide range of opportunities to leverage its place in the IT stack into a more comprehensive security offering, Petry said."We'll start with some of the simpler things and move into some of the more complex areas," Petry said. "We feel that security has to be an anchor tenant of the entire Google applications infrastructure; what Google has today is a framework for creating a lot of new tools down the road."Blending security tools into Google Apps is another priority for the search giant, as providing self-defense capabilities in those services will be essential to convincing larger businesses that the hosted applications model is industrial-strength, said Rajen Sheth, senior product manager at Google."Security remains one of the biggest issues for getting people more confident about putting more of their data outside the firewall," Sheth said. "Having policy-based services in place for protecting all different types of data -- as with the engine that came to Google from Postini -- will be critical to the success of Google Apps."Deep pockets, worthwhile possibilities Industry watchers agree that Google has the potential to successfully spin its existing security holdings into worthwhile security services.Enterprise Strategy Group analyst Brian Babineau underscored the strength of technology brought on board in the Postini and GreenBorder acquisitions as key to Google's security push.Marrying message filtering and archiving to Enterprise Gmail, along with the introduction of DLP tools, indicate the direction Google is likely to take, Babineau said.Here, the vast financial and development resources at Google's disposal will prove advantageous, the analyst added."It's hard to ignore the resources that they have to use on any technology investment. Postini had a good customer base, and by adding that delivery mechanism, you can certainly envision some interesting things they can do around Enterprise Gmail and Google Apps," Babineau said."Something like archiving for compliance or governance purposes makes a lot of sense, especially in the messaging arena," Babineau said. "There will be some financial services and health care companies looking for service providers who can handle a lot of this work, and those that would consider using services like this will probably find it attractive to have a one-stop shop when they can find one."Rethinking security Smaller organizations will likely be the first to adopt such services, but larger companies do seem increasingly open to the hosted applications delivery model, Babineau said."Google has the ability to move in a lot of different directions, but they will need to move cautiously and ensure that they hit the right price points that customers want for services like archiving, DLP, and data discovery," Babineau added.Of course, as other experts are quick to point out, many enterprises remain skeptical of the SaaS (software as a service) model, especially when it comes to employing services aimed at ensuring the security of business and customer data.Those same market watchers, however, concede that Google's security proposition is significant."It's still unclear how much market movement we will see with adoption of security software as a service; how enterprises in particular are viewing use of the tools in the future remains uncertain," said Andrew Braunberg, an analyst at Current Analysis. "Google certainly has the infrastructure in place now to create some interesting choke points for data and, of course, can bring a lot of processing power to the table."What may also help ensure Google's success in the hosted security market is an evolving outlook toward security already under way at many organizations, the analyst said."People are rethinking where security should live, especially in the context of the dissolving perimeter," Braunberg added. "If Google can push clean pipes in the cloud or take a data-centric approach on the desktop, you could see how some customers might be interested."Additional articles Thin vs. Fat: Google's plan to kill Microsoft Office Mounting scrutiny for Google security Security SaaS maturing fast
546031
GoogleÂs introduction this week of communications applications for enterprises has extended the software battle that has been brewing with Microsoft. And, according to analysts, it will likely prompt an aggressive response from Redmond.
238573
Halsey Minor, CEO of hosted integration provider grand central Communications, has a powerful message for IT: âIn four years, ... basically the whole notion of enterprise application software is going to be dead.â He believes application functionality will instead be available as hosted, pay-per-use services delivered by companies such as Salesforce.com. Putting his money where his mouth is, Minor has recently launched a $50 million venture capital fund with his own money to fuel on-demand startups. For its part, Grand Central will handle data and process integration between enterprises and multiple on-demand services.
659018
At first blush, Microsoft's proposed acquisition of Yahoo for $46.6 billion is about growing its consumer advertising and portal business to better compete wit Google. And that's certainly part of the mix, but perhaps lost in the discussion is how such an acquisition could help Microsoft execute its software-plus-services strategy for delivering business apps over the Internet faster and better, said several analysts. That strategy could help Microsoft compete with Google's own business-apps initiative, they said.[ Follow InfoWorld's ongoing coverage of Microsoft's offer to buy Yahoo ]"Yahoo has very efficient datacenters, as does Microsoft," noted Rob Koplowitz, a Forrester Research analyst. By combining their datacenters -- and, more important, their engineering talent -- Microsoft should be able to move faster and more efficiently on delivering business apps over the Internet, something that Microsoft has done at a fairly slow pace so far. "Yahoo's engineers can help," he noted, "And you know that there'll be engineers who are freed up" after the acquisition, should it go through."Although Google Applications have yet to make a real dent in the Microsoft Office giant, they do pose a long-term threat," said David Mitchell, a senior IT researcher at the consultancy Ovum. "As a defense against this position, Microsoft needs to accelerate its own move into online services. The online engineering capabilities that Yahoo has will undoubtedly offer Microsoft the potential to bring new services to market" and will help Microsoft stay competitive.Koplowitz said he does not believe Microsoft is trying to buy specific technology from Yahoo to fill a hole needed to compete against Google's business offerings. Microsoft wants more talent and capacity to follow its existing strategy, he said. Google's approach is to offer pure Web-based apps, which he noted are more mature than Microsoft's Web-delivered apps. Microsoft's approach is to extend its 450 million Office desktop seats through additional software delivered via the Internet. The strategies have some overlap, but because they are different, Koplowitz expects Microsoft and Google to take different technology paths rather than try to copy each other.Microsoft's acquisition of Yahoo would also bolster the company in another area where it has fallen behind Google: search, said Charlene Yi, a Forrester analyst. "Microsoft is interested in search because it provides a beachhead into businesses -- especially small and medium-sized ones that don't have a direct relationship with Microsoft," she said, as businesses typically buy Office software from retailers and resellers. Google is using search to forge those direct relationships and then offer business apps that compete with Microsoft's plans.
545303
Macs are now stable, Intel-based workhorses that run Windows apps and make end users happy. Is that enough for entry to the enterprise?