Continous Evolution

Google just announced a couple of new features and an apology for the outage last week. For me, I’ve already enabled the SSL feature (rolled out over a week ago).

When reviewers compare Google Apps to things like MS Office they don't take into account that it's just a snapshot in time which is no longer valid in Web 2.0 time frames. This approach used to be accepted since competitors would release major changes & features at best every 6 months. What the major zines fail to realize (and possibly desktop application vendors as well) is that web based apps like gMail, and other Google Apps are on a continual release train that delivers in weeks, not months and years. Features arrive all the time. Fixes are applied and instantly used by millions within hours. This is yet another example of that. Sure Google Apps may not be completely on-par with MS Office, but the trend is that it can sneak up and bite them when no one is looking.

In addition to this, innovative hackers have enhanced Google Apps with Firefox plug-ins and whole applications. RememberTheMilk.com is a perfect example. They graft their ToDo list management system directly onto gMail using Firefox in a very innovative way (innovative to me) to make up for missing functionality. Now take all of this together, add mobility detection and other features and you have excellent integration with all Google Apps on mobile device (iPhone for me) that surpasses any total solution out there.

Just as important is that Google is learning to deliver application on a massive scale. Something that comes only with experience and a few stubbed toes along the way. Enter stage right the Google application development environment and the future potential is staggering. Am I a Google groupie? Yes. Does this apply to the SAAS web application delivery industry as a whole, absolutely. We are sitting on the cusp of a very large change.

If you read this far I thank you.
Chris Claborne

Trailer In The Cloud

I think that cloud computing is a high watch item for 2008. There will be a lot of movement, announcements, and proclamations made this year. I feel that this is one of the boom areas in technology. This is significant because CIOs won’t be able to look away from the allure of SAAS (Software as a Service) and HaaS (Hardware as a Service) and the ridiculous low cost that it can be done for. Outsourcing to India and China is a good example. It may not bring the total benefits envisioned, but the low cost of outsourcing was just too good to pass up. As business tries to get their heads around virtualization they can’t take their eyes off the move to cloud computing. In some respects this is the next step in virtualization. My core data center in where I work is not in San Diego but at another site. Would I care if that data center wasn’t at my company site at all? If it came with the same or better security, performance and reliability, I wouldn’t.

Let me tell you a fictional little story. It’s called “The trailer in the cloud”.

Thoughts about MS Purchasing Yahoo

My first reaction was OMG. As I think about it I really question weather MS can turn Yahoo around or do any better job of managing it. It may be a question of Microsoft has to try and this is their opening. The purchase grows their customer base for internet services and they acquire a very large index and IP. I have very little view of the financial part of the deal and the overall implications so my view is pure tech and business results...