Daniel Gauthier
Karen Berg
Sarah Black
Erik Garcia
February 25, 2008
IS 372 Telecommunications Management
Cameron Lawrence
Google Applications Analysis
Google application is a step along the process of Carr's information technology prediction coming to fruition. Carr predicts that people will eventually pay for computers like a utility, instead of owning them as a commodity. This means people will pay a monthly fee to access Google Apps, instead of paying a flat fee for Microsoft Office or Microsoft Exchange Server. Carr's prediction comes from the belief that people are already paying a recurring fee for computers because they have to update and maintain the software and hardware. He believes they should only have to pay for the features they use on a computer which will be the basis of competition among companies.
The core of Carr's argument comes down to renting something versus buying it. Carr is a proponent of renting computers because computers depreciate in value, require maintenance and are not being used to their fullest potential. While at first glance, this appears a solid enough reason to rent computers and only pay for the service of grid computing, it has a few flaws that need to be addressed. With "grid computing" companies could potentially lose their competitive advantage because they no longer have the ability to maintain customized applications. On "grid computing" they will find their security and control will vanish. Individualized software or applications are a company's proprietary technology and one of the ways companies can differentiate themselves with information technology. With the grid computing being unknown, larger corporations will be hesitant to shift because the grid may not support their needs. As Carr states, "more complex operations requires more complex information systems" the constraints of grid computing could influence their financial standing.
The best way to address these flaws is to compare Carr's argument to transportation. Cars and computers are similar in that they both have maintenance and upkeep costs as well as their values depreciate with time. Public transportation then is like Carr's computing grid in that you essentially pay for the service instead of owning the commodity. There are similar problems between the computing grid and the transportation example. Public transportation has a set service area and is slower than using a car. Similarly, some computers will have a poor connection to Carr's computing grid and the networks can become overwhelmed to a crawling speed. Some of the advantages to owning a car or a computer are that the owner can recover some of the initial purchase costs, even though it may be minimal. Another advantage of owning is that the user has more control if anything should break down. However if a "computing grid" were to break down, the user would be reliant upon someone else to get everything fixed.
Carr's argument misses the problem that extensive users would benefit more from owning because they actually gain an asset. An example is a passenger who rides a bus so often that the overall cost of riding the bus per year would add up to more than all the costs of owning a car. For a business that requires the use of a large portion of the computing grid, the costs could become so extensive that they could have paid for their own network several times. If they had their own network, instead of being part of the computing grid, they would be able to recover some of their costs and save money. A good example of this is the use of electricity. For some companies, the amount of electricity they require from the electrical grid is greater than the cost of building their own power generating facilities. Particle physics research labs, such as Tevatron, require over 1 mWh of power for a one hour test on particle acceleration (http://accelconf.web.cern.ch/accelconf/p95/ARTICLES/WAP/WAP01.PDF). In comparison, a typical American family uses 0.85 mWh of power per month (http://michaelbluejay.com/electricity/whyhigh.html). Their tests are so sensitive in nature that the power grid isn't reliable enough for their needs. Any fluctuations in power output could have disastrous effects on the results of their tests.
Security is another main point of concern with Carr's argument that information technology will soon move towards the "computing grid." The security of public transportation is much less reliable than the security of your own car. What happens if you leave business documents on the bus? The bus may have security, but you don't have any control over it, and a lot of people are on the bus. If you leave the documents in your car, you know what type of car alarm you have, and there are many other cars out there for people to rob. The fact of the matter is that if someone really wants your data, they will find a way to get it. Having all the data located on the grid will mean there is one primary target for any hacker out there. It doesn't matter how good the security is, because it won't be good enough. There is no greater anonymity then being in a large crowd of people. Likewise, information is safer among millions of computers then on one computing grid. Some information falls into a special category that is unable to go on the grid because the information is so highly sensitive. For example, Department of Defense contracts are shrouded in secrecy and they would never be allowed on the grid.
Carr did not discuss the one major benefit of grid computing that will make it succeed. Carr needed to point out that companies would front a major portion of the purchasing cost and pass on savings to the consumer. Grid computing will succeed because of company’s ability to buy in bulk and pass on the savings to consumers. Right now, a consumer has to spend $900 for a quad core computer at Best Buy. They also have to spend $160 on Microsoft Office. When the computer becomes out dated, they have to re-buy everything. Companies can buy hundreds of these same computers for about $600 each. They can also add Microsoft Office and other programs for virtually nothing. Companies would also have the option of not installing Microsoft Office but rather they could have their consumers use alternative systems such as Google Applications.
Grid computing could start a new online revolution. However, until the flaws are worked out and the Internet is a more secure place to do business, the transition from owning a computer versus renting a computer will be a slow one. Similarly Google Apps is a concept that is slowly transitioning from a beta idea to a workable solution. At this time, desktop systems will continue to be the main operating system for small and large businesses. Even though Microsoft Office has some faults, it is currently far more reliable than Google Apps. Google needs much more development before they become a real challenger of Microsoft. Small businesses view Google Apps as a cheap tool to obtain a web presence, share documentation, and send emails. The problem is businesses already rely heavily on other tools that are within their control.
Google Applications is an online application that provides its users with a place to communicate and collaborate. Google Apps will provide three main benefits to small businesses which are the ability to access their data from anywhere at any time, a low cost method of managing their operations and the ability to manage all the applications in real time. While you do gain the benefit of having somebody else hosting your data, the question is how much business growth will Google allow? With owning an individual computer, you are limited to the amount of space on your hard drive. You have the ability to add additional memory at a fixed price. Generally, this price is about one dollar per gigabyte and it lasts you about 5 years. Google Apps is limited in its storage capacity in that it only has 2 GB of storage space. Any additional storage space would need to be purchased at a much higher price then the current system. Google's method would have you trapped in purchasing the storage from them at their set price. If that price increased, you would have a very hard time reacting to it. In the future, holographic memory will dramatically increase the reliability and amount of data that can be stored. A single holographic disk, which is the same size as a DVD, is able to store a theoretical 3.7 terabytes of data. This is not the only restriction of Google Apps.
Another place that Google Applications could use additional development is in the control panel. Upon logging on to Google Apps, the first thing a user sees is the control panel. There are two different views, depending upon whether you are an administrator of the registered domain or just a user. The basic functionality of the control panel is adequate. It allows a user to get into the various applications that are available. It needs some minor improvements though. Upon entering any one of the applications, a general user must use the back button on their browser in order to get back to the control panel. None of the applications have a link to return to the control panel. It would be more user-friendly and beneficial if the selected application opened in a new window. That way a user could return to the control panel at any time, without having to go back through the various pages visited. This is how it operates in the administrators control panel. Some more functionality that could be added is the general users control panel. Currently the links to the various applications take up about half of the page. This could be cut down to anywhere from about one quarter to one third of the page. The rest of the page could be used to add content and tools, like those that can be added to the moot start page. This would create a more powerful starting point in Google Applications, as well as a more personalized one for the user.
The start page is another view that is offered. It resembles the typical home page provided by an internet service provider. It is there for the sole purpose of allowing the user to have web access from the application. It provides links to Gmail, Google Docs and Google Calendar, however the Start Page requires you to enter each of the applications before the short cut becomes active. This defeats the purpose of having all the applications visible from one page simultaneously. If that flaw were to be worked out, the page still cannot be set as the default page upon logging in. The application requires the control panel to be the initial page. If the Start Page and the control panel were merged, this would be a more powerful tool for the user. Some of the content that can be added to the Start Page could be very useful to users in a business setting. The user would now have the ability to customize their start point. Overall the start page is a complete waste of time and web space.
Aside from the start page, Google Apps does offer applications such as email, documents and calendars that are all essential for the operation of a business. Gmail is Google's version of email. It is one of the few email systems that allows you to search your email. A shortcoming to their searching capabilities is that it is not as functional as Google's web search options. You can only use exclusive searches as opposed to Google's searching options where you have conditional searching. Another feature of Gmail that could use improvement is the placement of a tool bar within the message. Currently the system has a drop down menu that allows you to choose the action of the message such as reply, forward, delete, etc. They have a tool bar at the top, but the drop down menu is not kept within that tool bar. Users might have problems initially locating the menu. It will be very important for Google Apps to make all of their applications as user-friendly as possible in order to compete with other systems.
Some benefits of Gmail are that it has a unique contact management system, where it searches your contact list in real time as you type. This contact system allows you to group contacts so only one thing has to be typed to message a whole group of contacts. Gmail allows labels to be attached to messages, just like Linux hard links. Gmail allows filters to be set. This allows the automation of mail operations such as sorting, labeling, archiving, staring, deleting and forwarding to other e-mail addresses. Gmail supports plus addressing. This means a plus symbol can be added to the end of the user name part of the email address without changing it. youremail+message@domain.com is equal to youremail@domain.com. This is a handy feature for spam detection, spam prevention and automatic filtering. The most common way spam is sent to people is through programs, called bots, that go to websites and collect emails. This is the main reason people post their email as "username (AT) domain (dot) com" or something equally obscure. Gmail supports sending emails to static IP addresses and TELNETING to its servers. It also allows people to interface with their servers using programming languages such as Java and C++. Google provides all the needed abstract programming interfaces required to allow a program to send email through Gmail servers.
Google Docs is a basic application used to create and revise documents, power points and spreadsheets. It is unique because it allows multiple users to edit documents together in real time. Some current problems with Google Docs lie within the revision capabilities. Currently, Google's interface for managing revisions is cumbersome and unreliable. It needs to allow the editor to see more than 20 revisions at a time. It also seems to be missing some of the revised data. When several people are working on a particular document at once, the document will bump one or more persons to a different part of the document upon saving or refreshing. This definitely causes users frustration because they are continually scrolling back to the same sentence that they are trying to complete.
Some items that seem to be missing from the application that are typical of a desktop application are real time spell check, a thesaurus, and a variety of other tools that are important to the formatting of documents. Google Docs is also lacking a database management system and does not allow for advanced users to automate tasks with macros. Without these features, Microsoft and any other desktop application will continue to be used as a main document processor.
One very beneficial feature of Google Docs, that other applications do not offer, is the ability to export the text to PDF format without downloading additional software. For many businesses this will be helpful because they will need to send documents to other businesses. If the document is in PDF format it ensure the document will be in a read only format free from modifications.
The amazing thing about Google Docs is everyone can do what they are best at and give those contributions in real time. If you have a group of people editing a document, one person may be really bad at punctuation but good at making the document flow. Another person may be just the opposite. People can also feed off each other's ideas without changing them.
Google calendar is a scheduling application. It allows you to create and maintain several different schedules. The system could use improvements in its sharing capabilities. Currently the system allows you to share, not share or just show availability. It does not allow sharing to be chosen on a per event basis. It would be beneficial to have sharing on a per event basis in a business environment. Without this feature individuals would be required to keep separate calendars depending on their sharing needs. At no time would they be able to have everything on one calendar and have certain events remain private.
The calendar also allows for the users and the public to view their published calendar using the shared feature. Data from the public Google calendar can also be integrated into the web page application of Google Apps.
Some additional features that can be beneficial to a business but not necessarily essential are messaging and web design. Google Apps offers both of these tools.
Google Talk is the chat feature in Google Apps is a typical instant messenger. It provides a very useful tool for users to collaborate on projects remotely. As Tom Friedman pointed out, it is now possible to access the web from virtually anywhere. Google talk allows users to bounce ideas back and forth in a live, real time setting. This is just as if they were meeting face to face in a brainstorming or collaboration setting. The drawback to this approach is that, unless you are within the email portion of Google Applications, users must download and install Google Talk in order to chat. Although downloading Google Talk is a simple task it would be burdensome to have to repeatedly do so.
The Google Apps Web Page application is an excellent tool for a business in need of an inexpensive web presence. It requires no HTML knowledge and anyone can create a simple website for their business. It is a great way to start advertising and let people know about the company.
The Web Page application is very limited in the creativity it allows for the user. Currently, it only supports client side programming languages such as CSS, HTML, and java script. Server side web sites that run on Apache or .NET servers allow the web programmer more control to make fancier websites that include databases, scripts and dynamic pages. Google's web creator has standard layout and design options that are all pre-set. They do not allow the user to build a custom application to fit their individual and business needs. To fit these needs Google Web Pages should provide users with the ability to import web pages from other web site integrated developing environment (IDE) such as Oracle, Dreamweaver, and Front Page.
Overall Google Applications is an excellent way for a small business to have an IT platform for their business. For most small businesses funds are in short supply and the cost of setting up that infrastructure, as well as the continuous maintenance and upgrade costs can be prohibitive. With Google Applications the business only pays a small yearly fee, they can have a system up and running in no time without any set up cost. The costs of maintaining and upgrading that system are now shifted to someone else because Google handles all of that for you. In addition to the cost savings, businesses and individuals will find themselves enjoying real time chatting, document editing, and collaboration no matter if they are in the next cubical or in a neighboring country. The only requirement is that they be connected to the Internet. A rather timely benefit of Google Apps is the affect that it will have on the mobile community. Mobile devices are the next powerhouse in computing technology. In and of itself mobile technology has advanced dramatically and would allow for the idea of grid computing and virtually centralized applications to flourish.
For that small fee Google Applications supplies the basic tools needed in an IT platform to conduct business. Gmail, Google’s version of email, comes with the application. Thus eliminating the need for a small business to set up its own email server, which can be time consuming and costly. Its functionality offers many of the needed features provided by other email systems. Google Docs provides business with its version of an office suite. With Google Docs users have access to a word processor, spreadsheets, and presentation software. All are necessary tools in the business world. The application even allows for collaboration and editing on the same document in real time, which allows users to work remotely. While their functionality is limited at present, as time goes on that will undoubtedly change, as Google adds more features. But as of right now the basic requirements that businesses needs are covered. Along the lines of collaborating remotely a chat feature is offered, which gives users a platform to bounce ideas back and forth on various projects. Google Applications also offers a calendar feature which allows users to track scheduled appointments and meetings. It further allows users to control what is shared or not, thus allowing for personalized or company-wide postings. This eliminates each person from having to keep a separate calendar to track the various other projects they are working on. If all of this was not enough, Google Applications even offers a control panel upon log in with handy links to access each feature from one location, instead of having to search through a list of menus to access these Applications. Google Applications even adds a kicker to what a small business would get for that small yearly fee, a web page. With the web page offering a business can get a web site up and running with no cost and little expertise in creating and editing web pages. In the modern business world it is of an ever increasing importance to have a web presence.
Google Applications, while still somewhat limited, is a very powerful tool for a small business to incorporate in their operation. As IT has more and more become mainstream and just a cost of doing business, small businesses can now have access to those platforms at an early stage and get in the game as a serious competitor a lot sooner. Without having to outlay a large portion of their limited funds on infrastructure the so called “little guy” can now apply those resources to their core business processes and chip away at the market share of the corporate giants, in their industry. After all, in business, profit is the name of the game.
It is important keep in mind is that it is not a zero sum game. If Google happens to take even up to 35% of the market share, Microsoft will keep the pace and find new, innovative ways to maintain its stronghold and keep its consumer base happy. In addition, there will continue to be instances in which businesses will not allow for its documents to exist anywhere out of their control. Such organizations could include any governmental agency or companies with highly sensitive documentation.
Aside from companies who will never trust their business to the computing grid it is important to remember that this is a slow moving advancement. As Carr explains that sometimes it is in companies' best interests to be followers of technical advances instead of leaders. He notes that companies have repeatedly found themselves, "at the mercy of a technology infrastructure that their operations depended on, but over which they had little control." He continues by stating that technologies become more reliable and less risky as they become main stream. Although Carr argues that the world should shift toward the use of "computing grid" From Carr's perspective, it will be best to allow Google Applications or the "computing grid" to become more developed before investing or relying upon the technology for the operation of a business. What businesses do need to look towards is becoming more competitive in their buying habits of technology.
Until certain unreliability features and security concerns are resolved, Google Applications will only remain a lucrative supplement to Microsoft Office. It is difficult to conclude at what point Google Applications will become main stream, if at all. One can conclude, however, that individuals and businesses are having difficulty keeping the pace with the speed at which technology is changing.
If history of infrastructural technologies repeats itself by building upon the existing structure, then Google Apps should be a step up from Microsoft by providing strategic advantage for companies that are first to adapt the technology. However, Google Apps is more of a "side step" in that it merely extends the features that Microsoft Office and other applications already offer. Google Apps and grid computing may become the wave of the future, but there will be many businesses and individuals that will wait for the tide to change so they are not the first ones to crash.
