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I've been investigating cloud computing for the past couple of months so of course I had a few expectations of this session. I've confirmed after sitting in on this session that cloud computing is still undefined. Despite the session title, the session focused on primarily on Google apps. It was still very well presented by Sig VanDamme and has peaked my interest as a potential solution to break out of the continuing Microsoft licensing cycle.
From the brochure:
"Web-based tools designed for a user-friendly experience can enable you to provide improved collaboration capabilities and create greater efficiency. Listen to how the Ad Council of Rochester and the American Public Gardens Association are using Web 2.0 tools to save money and create organizational efficiencies.
Now my notes! Again, RAW stuff everyone:
What's the snapshot today? 25 percent time looking for things. And most of this stuff in email. Stuff is usually exchange. 80 percent of budget to maintain what you have. 20 percent on newer things. Using Microsoft world. XP, Exchange, outlook, excel, etc. straight html or SharePoint.
Complexity. How many use more than 10 percent of MS word? Use all these things? Get in the way of what you usually use? With MS, you constantly retraining people. Biggest problem is innovation. NONE. Must maintain status quo. No competition.
Cloud computing, SaaS, google apps.
Cloud computing = utilizing someone else's resources. Back to the past when you had dummy terms with a powerful comp in the background.
Pay for as you go service. Monthly payments which are dramatically lower than large cap expense. Leveraging the tech infrastructure built by someone else. Us a browser.
Saas. Don't have to keep multiple versions running or have no distribution costs (for the service provider). Google Cloud. Has datacenters all over world made of thousands of PCs chained together as cloud. Grid computing.
Google apps. Take the bite out of MS. But focused on making these a solid suite of products. Sharepoint is billion dollar business. Google can't do everything what sharepoint can do. Complex. Google mail. Easy to use. No manual! Uncluttered. It does not and will never match MS in number of functions.
Collaboration. Google apps. Everyting starts at the point of collaboration. 50 other people can edit the same document. This is impossible in other products. They view the tech to accomplish a task.
Google beliefs. Simple is better than complex. Fast is better than slow - lives for speed. Focus is on the user. Be as inclusive as possible.
Gmail. No need for folders. Just use search. Not only applies to gmail but with all their stuff. Again, big timesaver. Puts emails together in conversation. If you reply by chat, it becomes part of discussion of the mail. Postini. Full support for mobile! Space not an issue - 25 gigs per person. Extremely secure. 750 professional just involved in security. High uptime! Planned and unplanned downtime. Gmail has NO planned downtime. Can do upgrades in placed without taking system down.
Google paid service. $50 per user. Non-profits are free to use! Integrated chat within organization.
Calendar. When you're using exchange, tough for other people, like your spouse, to see calendar. Facilitates today's lifestyle where personal work intermix.
Google Documents. Searchable and built in revision history. Every single revision to document. However, what changed from each revision? The app redlines the changes. Also, can share and collaborate the document.
Google sites. Use it for collaboration. No html required. Unlimited number of Websites. You start with a list of tasks. Who has to do it. Can subscribe to change. Status blog. So really how hard is it to create a site? You start with a task list. The add functions with a few click such as menus. Again, can I do everything I need to do that is other CMS like Ektron, no. But you get 90 percent. How about you create one for every committee? Council? Chapter? Etc. Can do dns changes for have subdomains off your normal domain.
Google Moderator. Great way to poll a group of people. Most surveys ask you but you don't hear what other people are talking about. Easy way to crowdsource.
Question, can you bring Exchange datastor into Google? Yes, in google premier version. It doesn't take events, it takes the mail. But other tools are available if you want to do the calendar sync. Can continue to this even after you migrate the first time.
How do you handle archiving, compliance? By default, you get three months archiving of your email. You can extend it with your own money. Different services to backup your gmail stores to a disk.
How about if Google disappears? True. At this point, that is highly unlikely. Valid concerns. You have to buy into these companies.
Implementation challenges? Typical challenge - use google migration tools but then there is a virus on one of the workstations and things don't transfer. Another - people capable with outlook don't transfer well into using a browser for these applications. Or someone who uses Firefox and uses a lot of extensions.
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