-
blog search
-
most recent posts
post calendar
categories
Google Apps finally out of beta
Thursday, July 9, 2009 by Angela Ashenden
Among all the excitement surrounding Google’s Chrome operating system announcements on Tuesday, the news that Google has finally moved the remaining applications in the Google Apps suite out of beta got rather overshadowed. However, while it may not be ground breaking in the same way as a new competitor for the Windows operating system, this is in fact a highly significant event in Google’s enterprise strategy, indicating that Google is finally acknowledging that its success in the enterprise market is as much about the way it is perceived as the products it offers.
The products concerned include Gmail (or Google Mail in the UK) , Google Calendar, Google Docs and Google Talk, which now join Google Video and Google Sites as fully “released” products. While Google used the announcement to highlight some recent and new product enhancements – notably to Gmail, such as email delegation and retention policies – this is to a large extent a branding issue. Since its entry to the collaboration software market with Google Apps in 2006 (with the premium version following in early 2007), Google has been broadly criticized for retaining the beta tag on its product, suggesting to many that the products were not “enterprise-ready”, and that Google was not serious about serving the enterprise market. In fact, for example, the service level agreements that you would expect from a fully released product have been in place from the beginning.
Over the last two years, Google’s profile has steadily grown as an enterprise player, with some high profile customer wins (Taylor Woodrow, Guardian News and Media, Telegraph Media Group). Its Google Apps product set has quietly strengthened, releasing new features often on a weekly basis, and through technologies such as its acquired Postini email archiving services, it is increasingly generating interest within the business market, particularly among small companies, or where there is a need to reassess email costs and providers. Looking ahead, Google also has other irons in the fire: the recent Google Wave announcements show the continued levels of innovation that Google promises to bring the enterprise collaboration market.
Of course, the enterprise business remains a drop in the ocean among Google’s vast business – both in terms of revenue and visibility – but slowly the company is beginning to show its hand beyond the realms of Internet search and advertising, and is proving that it is serious about cracking the enterprise market. As a fully released, post-beta product suite, Google Enterprise should now be in a position to enter a new phase of growth – and of course, with the beta tags gone, there is nowhere left to hide.
Posted in Collaboration