Joke: “Why did it take God 7 days to create the Earth?”
Answer: “Because He did not have the install base.”
Google Wave has captured a lot of attention since it’s announcement, but it is not production ready and will likely have a “beta” tag on it for years. And years. Microsoft’s BPOS offering is here today. The name does not exactly roll off the tongue; however, it is in production.
Google and Microsoft will battle over the cloud application space. Google’s challenge will be to penetrate the enterprise. Microsoft already has a huge base of enterprise partners and resellers with established relationships. At the end of the day it will be about value, but it is a lot easier if you are the incumbent. Expect Microsoft to leverage its huge base of enterprise partners and get a big footprint for BPOS.
The Google Wave preview is worth the time to check out. My take, like many others, is that Google Wave is clearly aimed at Microsoft Sharepoint and Exchange. There are many cloud versions of Sharepoint-like collaboration tools already. As companies get more comfortable with their corporate email, they will be looking for the 1-2 punch offered by Microsoft and now Google. I would expect these two giants to continue to slug it out in the cloud application space. It may be just a matter of time before Google swallows Salesforce.com. If that does in fact happen, the fireworks will fly.
Update
Another great read on Google Wave and Microsoft @ TechCrunch: The Manhattan Project.
Update 11/23/11
Well Google bombed on this one. Wave never gained traction despite the hype. Development stopped over a year ago and it is officially on life support. The plug will be pulled on April 30, 2012. So long, we hardly knew ya. The Official Google Blog: More spring cleaning out of season.
Interesting read over the weekend at NY Times. Plugging In $40 Computers goes into the world of mini-servers about the size of a large DC Charger. With 512 MB Flash, 512 MB RAM, USB and Gigabit Ethernet, these computers have some chops. No video though.
Obvious uses around the house would be file and print servers. It will not be too long before these type of devices are running wi-fi and dedicated applications. Home security, appliance monitoring and digital media management clearly have value. I could see other applications for remote monitoring in hard to reach places such as agriculture, undersea or a volcano as these devices have cell and additional power added.
Enterprise applications could include clustering, intelligent scanning and other logistics applications. Need to think on that some more. The size and price point to many of the arguments raised by Nicholas Carr’s Big Switch.
Some interesting predictions and comments over at TechCrunch. Most of them centering on Amazon AWS vs. Microsoft. My opinion is that people are trying to define cloud as a something very specific when a more general definition is appropriate. Think “Transportation” rather than “Planes, boats, trains and/or automobiles.” Microsoft is in a good position as well as Amazon. No reason that both approaches will not be successful.
The money quote:
Ozzie: Technology builds on top [of what was there before], and then markets flip. You have to do pattern matching with technology trends, what’s going on with the social environment, and how people use technology. Right now, the way I’ve been framing things, we’re moving to a world of ‘three screens and a cloud.’ For the user experience, we will all commonly consume solutions delivered to us in a coherent way—to something the size of a phone, a PC, and a TV. Yes there will be better devices, but there will be solutions that weave those things together, with the cloud at the back end. You can project where things will go for developers.
The Enterprise and the Cloud will happen. It will be just a matter of time.
Major challenges for the Enterprise and the Cloud today are:
1. Security
2. Performance
3. Perceived “Lock In”
4. Unexpected Costs
The benefits of the Cloud will only be realized when these 4 challenges are addressed. If I am selling Cloud applications or services to the enterprise today, these points would be in my elevator pitch.
FBI seizures highlight law as cloud impediment by James Urquhart is an interesting read on the law and the cloud. Having sold a “cloud” service, these aspects of the cloud come up — a lot. Legal departments live for this kind of stuff. As this example in the article shows, the conversation is not going to get easier.
Analysis from McKinsey & Company that “deflates the cloud” according to coverage by Forbes. I have checked it out and I could wax philosophic on this, but Nicholas Carr has already produced as very good criticism of the report. The cloud will supplement in the enterprise as it will incubate new processes, ideas and competitive advantages. A great example is the New York Times Archives on Amazon AWS. What is going to happen when smart companies figure out how to aim all that raw computing power at their disposal?
This recent article in Forbes, Eclipse: Many Hands, Light Work by Lee Gomes, argues that competitive advantage is not in the code, but in the data. I find myself often agreeing with Gomes and enjoy his writting. Unfortunately this time, Gomes misses the point. Competitive advantage is in the process and the data. The two are inter-linked. If there was no advantage in the process, you would see companies like Wal-Mart jumping all over the open source community and the cloud. Consortium projects, such as Eclipse, do have their place and provide value. If membership in Eclipse provided a clear competitive advantage, would an IT department even brag about it?
I am a technology veteran with a signature “Show the love,” philosophy to successfully create, build and deliver great customer relationship experiences.
