Capgemini to provide IT services for Google Apps
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InfoWorld - Google has formed a partnership with Capgemini, which will provide IT services to large businesses that adopt the Google Apps Premier Edition hosted suite of collaboration and communication software.
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InfoWorld - Avaya said on Thursday that it will develop communications solutions for small business that combine Google's updated Apps Premier Edition suite of Web applications with its own IP telephony technology.
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Etelos Systems Inc. has brought a beta version of a tool that can link its hoste CRM software and the Web-based suite of applications from Google Inc.
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Web search leader Google Inc. has begun delivering a set of essential business software tools to paying subscribers, in a move to widen its appeal to corporate customers, the company said on Wednesday.
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Google Inc. GOOG.O is allowing   users to add hundreds of different miniature Web-based programs   built by Google or outside programmers to other sites, the   company said on Tuesday.
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Want to use Google gadgets for work? Big Blue plans to let business users run the mini apps on its WebSphere Portal software.
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Adds Docs &amp; Spreadsheet to Apps, spells out SLA Google will try to chill Microsoftâs post-Office launch glow today, adding Docs &amp; Spreadsheets to its apps suite and pitching a pay per seat version of the bundle to corporate customers.â¦
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Google will unveil communications and productivity software aimed at businesses that will be accessible over the Internet.
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InfoWorld - Google announced on Thursday evening that a domain name search and registration service will be added to its Google Apps for Your Domain offering.
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Google today launched a spiffed-up version of Google Apps, its free Office-like suite of programs. This follows by two days its introduction of a new e-mail management service. Both are tailored for small businesses, schools and non-profit agencies. Normally, these moves would draw scant notice. But as Microsoft tries to absorb Yahoo - the better to make inroads into Internet advertising - Google is moving ahead with initiatives to claw its way onto Microsoft turf.
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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
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(InfoWorld) - Indiaâs second largest outsourcer, Infosys Technologies, is considering a bid for French IT services company Capgemini, according to a newspaper report. The Times of India of Mumbai quoted an industry source on Friday as saying the move was a natural progression for a fast-growing Indian tech firm keen to make an impression on the global market. Infosys declined to comment on the reports. âWe do not comment on market rumors,â a spokeswoman for the company said Friday. However, Infosys, in Bangalore, indicated at itsÂ analyst conference in AprilÂ that it may consider an acquisition. An acquisition deal between Infosys and Capgemini is unlikely to happen, said Siddharth Pai, a partner at consultancy firm Technology Partners International in Houston, Texas. Infosys might acquire Capgemini to get access to European markets, where it doesn't have a large presence, but the cultural incompatibilities between the two companies are very high, he added. A number of Indian outsourcing companies including Tata Consultancy ServicesÂ (TCS) and WiproÂ have acquired companies abroad to increase their geographic reach and to focus on new industry sectors. Capgemini used acquisitions as way to win new business and add staff in India. Last year, the companyÂ acquired a 51 percent stakeÂ in Unilever India Shared Services, a subsidiary of European consumer goods maker Unilever Group. That business will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Capgemini by 2008. In February,Â Capgemini acquired Kanbay International, an IT services firm in Rosemont, Illinois, to boost its services delivery from India, and its business in the financial services sector. Infosys reported revenue of $3.1 billion for the fiscal year ended March 31 this year, and has forecast revenue of about $4 billion in its current fiscal year ending March 31 next year. The company had a market capitalization of $27 billion as of March 31. Capgemini is a larger company with revenue of $10 billion for its fiscal year ended December 31.
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(InfoWorld) - Google Inc. is hosting events for software developers in 10 cities around the world on Thursday, promoting the use of its tools and services to build Web-based applications. The events, which began in Sydney and will wrap up later Thursday in San Jose, California, were expected to attract around 5,000 developers, with many others tuning in online. The events provide further evidence of how far Google has come from being an Internet search company to offering software and services that compete increasingly with those of Microsoft Corp. In a series of presentations, engineers showed how developers can use APIs (application programming interfaces) for Google Maps, Google Checkout and other services to add functionality to Web sites or build new, mash-up applications. The company also unveiled new software, includingÂ a browser plug-in called Google Gears, for viewing Web applications offline, and the Google Mashup Editor, an "experimental tool" for creating user interfaces with AJAX. Gregory Renard, CTO of IT consulting company Wygwam , traveled from Brussels for the event near Bastille in Paris. He came to research whether he should start using Google's APIs for his work, which involves building proof-of-concept applications for businesses and government agencies. In a sense he is on the front line of Google's rivalry with Microsoft. Renard is a Microsoft Most Valued Professional, one of a group of hand-picked developers chosen for their deep knowledge of Microsoft products. Today he is undecided as to whether he prefers the Google tools to Microsoft's competing Windows Live APIs for Web-based applications. Google's roots are on the Web but Microsoft has much more experience building tools for developers, he said. "Google is a search company that wants to be a software company, and Microsoft is a software company that wants to be a search company," Renard said. In any case, he's glad that Google has emerged as a Microsoft competitor because it should ensure more innovation and lower prices, he said. One question he hoped to get answered Thursday was whether Google's APIs will remain free to use, which is important if he plans to use them for his clients. Yvon Cognard was there to learn more about the Google Maps API, which his company uses at its Web site Trivop.com , which bills itself as "the first video guide for hotels." He has already been using it for some time and called it "a very good tool," although Google could do better with its documentation, he said. Cyril Pierre de Geyer was trying to decide if his company, Anaska , which provides training in MySQL and PHP, should also offer training in Google APIs. Anaska uses Google Maps on its own Web site to show locations of its training centers, he said. Google has a good reputation with developers and contributes code to the open-source community, such as extensions for the MySQL database, de Geyer said. But he has also noticed a tendency by Google to monetize its services more aggressively than a few years ago, he said, by putting more ads on its search results pages, for example. For Google, the events should help to build a bigger developer community, which in turn should help promote paid services such as the professional edition of its online productivity applications. It should also mean more Web sites using Google services, which helps drive its advertising business. Company engineers sought to emphasize the collaborative role that developers can play with Google's APIs. "We need your creativity and your imagination to drive the development of these products," said Patrick Chanezon, evangelist for Google Checkout, at the start of the Paris meeting . The other events Thursday were being held in Tokyo, Beijing, Moscow, Sao Paulo, Madrid, London, and Hamburg, Germany.ADVERTISEMENTIBM Information On Demand 2006Industrial Industry Leaders, please join us at IBM's premier information management global event, IBM Information On Demand 2006, October 15-20, Anaheim, CA. More IBM business and technical solutions content in one place than ever before! Select from  over 800 sessions. Register today!
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Google will add a presentation application to Google Apps lineup by year-end.
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(InfoWorld) - Google has agreed to buy messaging security company Postini for $625 million in a move to increase the appeal of Google's hosted applications among big businesses, the companies announced on Monday. Postini provides messaging security, archiving, policy enforcement and other services to about 35,000 business customers around the world, Google said. The vendor plans to use the technology to boost the security and compliance features of Google Apps, its hosted suite of productivity applications. Google said around 1,000 small businesses are signing up for Google Apps every day. But it admitted that big businesses have been reluctant to use such hosted services because of concerns about security and corporate compliance. Buying Postini will help to relieve those concerns, the company said. The cash deal is subject to customary closing conditions and expected to close by the end of the third quarter, Google said. Google plans to make Postini a wholly owned subsidiary and said it will continue to support Postini customers and invest in Postini products. Â
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Not great software, but certainly good enough Comment Google is now head-to-head with Microsoft in the Office Apps market, as you may have guessed from the recent Google Apps announcement. What you get from Google is word processing, spreadsheet, calendar, chat, web page creation, and email.â¦
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(InfoWorld) - Microsoft and IBM executives Wednesday admitted feeling heat from Google now that the Web search giant is trying to make inroads into the enterprise market with its hosted suite of communication and collaboration tools. Google Apps, a hosted service, is gaining traction primarily in universities but is a welcome addition to enterprise software because of its simplicity and ease of use, said Rob Curry, director of Microsoft's Office business platform group, during a panel discussion today at the Enterprise 2.0 conference in Boston. "We actually see [Google] as a great competitor in this space," Curry said. "And they bring a good spirit in terms of simplicity, ease of use and things we're trying to leverage as we go forward in our development cycle." Google Apps was described as a "direct shot at Microsoft Office" by Forrester Analyst Erica Driver when Google released an enterprise version of the tool in February. For US$50 per user per year, customers get e-mail, instant messaging, a calendar tool, a Web page creator, support for e-mail on BlackBerry mobile devices and integration with Google Docs & Spreadsheets. Analysts say Google Apps offers less functionality than Office but is less expensive. IBM, which offers the Lotus Notes set of e-mail, calendaring and collaborative applications, and Lotus Sametime, an IM and Web conferencing tool, has partnered with Google but still sees the company as a potential competitor. Lotus Sametime allows IM customers to communicate with users of Google Talk. "We're a key partner of Google's," said Ken Bisconti, vice president of messaging and collaboration software for IBM, during the panel discussion. "We partner with them, and continue to partner with them, hopefully for the good of our customers. I also fully expect them to become a competitor to us in the business space." Google executives are busy trying to understand the requirements of enterprises, a learning process that will be crucial if the search company hopes to gain market traction for Google Apps outside of academia, Bisconti said. "Most of our customers tell us they're talking to the Google enterprise team," he said. "Google is doing a good job of collecting information to understand enterprise requirements. ... I don't see them as a near-term competitor but as a long-term potential substitution." No Google officials participated in the panel. The session, titled "Vendor Spotlight: Assessing IBM & Microsoft Platforms for Collaboration & Unified Communications," also gave the vendors a chance to discuss the broad trend in which employees expect the types of instant communication available to them in their personal lives. This is placing increased important on IM, Web conferencing, video and audio conferencing, and mobile communications. "The role of instant messaging has completely transformed and it has become a business expectation," said Akiba Saeedi, IBM's program director for unified communications and collaboration products. Years ago, people questioned whether e-mail would become a necessary business function. No one would question e-mail's importance today, and IM seems to be heading in a similar direction, Saeedi said. Bisconti cautioned against getting caught up in industry buzzwords such asÂ "enterprise 2.0," but said the desire for collaborative technology in general is real and has created a huge business opportunity for software vendors. "I have never seen so much senior-level interest in companies in improving the way they communicate, collaborate and improve the speed and agility of their business," he said.