Comments on: Google Aims to Woo the Enterprise With Its Cloud

By: Google on Net Neutrality, Its Fiber Buildout and Cloud

Google on Net Neutrality, Its Fiber Buildout and Cloud — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 00:10:51 +0000

[...] information can obviously disrupt entire industries, but it’s clear that the company is stepping up to take a greater role when it comes to cloud computing and hosted applications. We’ve seen its effort to get enterprise customers on board and it [...]

By: Google Tries to Offer a Grown-up Cloud

Google Tries to Offer a Grown-up Cloud — Wed, 19 May 2010 17:03:08 +0000

[...] because of its previous weakness at providing the service and an enterprise-friendly platform, Google has worked with VMware’s Spring Source division to develop a way to move apps from [...]

By: Google’s App Engine is Sputtering

Google’s App Engine is Sputtering — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 19:20:08 +0000

[...] seems to be handling this, criticism that certainly may cause the company harm in its quest to woo the enterprise to its platform. Readers, can Google keep App Engine [...]

By: Like Google, Salesforce Is Pushing Its Platform for the Enterprise

Like Google, Salesforce Is Pushing Its Platform for the Enterprise — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 15:28:08 +0000

[...] where Rackspace, Amazon and GoGrid were fighting to provide bare-bones cloud computing, is now moving up the stack as cloud vendors realize that plenty of IT departments are thinking about using some form of cloud [...]

By: Google and Salesforce.com Join Clouds

Google and Salesforce.com Join Clouds — Wed, 27 May 2009 20:59:22 +0000

[...] is trying to use App Engine as a way to draw corporate users to its other online products such as Google Docs or Enterprise search. In addition to being a platform where any developer can [...]

By: Microsoft and HP Team Up to Take on Cisco

Microsoft and HP Team Up to Take on Cisco — Wed, 20 May 2009 01:01:43 +0000

[...] will be worth $34 billion in the coming years. Google is also pushing into this space with its Google Apps and other enterprise efforts. But Microsoft isn’t going to sit still while interlopers try to infringe on its business. [...]

By: Internet Marketing, Strategy & Technology Links - May 5, 2009 « Sazbean

Internet Marketing, Strategy & Technology Links - May 5, 2009 « Sazbean — Tue, 05 May 2009 12:05:23 +0000

[...] Google Aims to Woo the Enterprise With Its Cloud (GigaOM) [...]

By: Ken B

Ken B — Mon, 04 May 2009 13:57:00 +0000

I wonder if Google App Engine(tm) is another sign of Google Arrogance(tm). Who in their right mind would implement a non-trivial application on a proprietary platform (in Python!) and risk being locked in when Google loses interest and lets its product languish like so many others in its stable?

Are there interesting examples of apps that are using App Engine?

Even Microsoft’s .NET/C# allows gives you many hosting options, including Amazon’s EC2.

By: Sam Charrington

Sam Charrington — Mon, 04 May 2009 13:51:55 +0000

Hi Stacey,

I like the food prep analogy as well. I think of cloud platforms as offering two distinct characteristics. The first is that cloud platforms offer a *framework* and is what many people think of with PaaS. But the second and perhaps more powerful characteristic is that of *abstraction*. You mention both in your article, but I think the food prep example doesn’t do justice to the abstraction piece.

The alternative to hosted cloud platforms (PaaS) is the enterprise, or self-hosted platform such as Appistry’s CloudIQ Platform. These offer the abstraction and framework without the lack of portability and lock-in of offerings like App Engine. And you can have your cake and eat it too by using one of these platforms on an IaaS cloud offering like Amazon EC2 or GoGrid.

Finally there is the issue of whether or not Google gets the enterprise and its needs. I addressed this in a post the other day in response to the flap about public vs private clouds:

http://www.appistry.com/blogs/sam/yes-google-we-know-exactly-what-you-mean

Thanks,
Sam
http://twitter.com/samcharrington

By: David

David — Mon, 04 May 2009 09:58:20 +0000

I’m wondering what Google’s ToS will look like for their cloud services. Everything google maintains some rights to access your data to better sell you stuff. Indeed, they often get stuck having to change their ToS because they want to reserve too many rights to YOUR content. Personally, I believe your private data (application code, application data, customers, database) is better off over at Amazon. :)
Sorry… forgot to say great post – can’t wait to read your next one!

By: David

David — Mon, 04 May 2009 05:22:10 +0000

By: Paul Lopez

Paul Lopez — Mon, 04 May 2009 04:08:35 +0000

Stacey – I loved your analogy of the food preparation! It sounds like with App Engine, Google will optimize for developing on top of the Google stack but you are on your own if you want to venture out. One possible reason they might want to establish development boundaries would be so those enhanced extensions would run on Android and also on future Netbooks running App Engine apps and Android Linux. Not sure we can get the whole story right now.

http://lopezunwired.com
http://twitter.com/lopezunwired