Government Embracing Clouds?

We can note on April 1st, 2008, April Fool's Day, of course, that Google announced its intention to fight the good fight to put government information in the cloud. No doubt that it makes sense given the security breaches from lost laptops, but this will be a long, hard battle. Washington DC spends billions on security, and hundreds of thousands of people make a living off security. They work at corporations that wrote the security standards. 

The Washington Post covered Dave Girouard's, vice president and general manager for Google Enterprise, "cloud computing" keynote this morning. "We'll have to earn your trust," Dave Girouard told the audience. He may have some work cut out for him given the level of hysterical comments to this article over the week-end regarding Google's work in the intelligence community.

I do agree that the cloud is more secure than people falling asleep in airports with their Panasonic Toughbook, but it will take a government leader to embrace the cloud before things start to really happen. The government will need someone like Merrill Lynch to lead the way. It happen sooner than you think given the progress made in the intelligence community and the Navy.

I get the chance to work with large companies (including government agencies) and start-ups, and it is amazing the difference in work (and productivity) between the two. The gulf between their operations compared to larger businesses is massive. Most (every seems strong) new companies with which I have spoken over the last year do work in the following way:

* Create and collaborate documents with an online “Office” tool such as Google Apps or Zoho

* Manage projects in Basecamp

* Use Salesforce to track leads

* Instantly have access to all of their information above no matter where they are located

No one worries about software licenses, hardware upgrades, or even training. 

There small companies will not retreat from these services as they grow larger, and as Dave Girouard said today the next crop of programmers are the "the cloud generation." The college engineering student who shifts from developing applications in the clouds of Facebook and Google to managing server upgrades and managing licenses probably will not have been the valedictorian.

Google Search Appliance: "SaaS in a Box"

The Google Search Appliance (GSA) seems to be an object that the enterprise software community loves to hate. CMS Watch's negative review last week caught my eye. While, I have always known that people did not understand the Google Search Appliance (and search is a hard topic), I have had trouble conveying the difference between enterprise search software and the GSA to people interested in a search solution.

Bill McColl's post gave me an 'a-ha!' moment. Unlike, enterprise search software, the GSA is "SaaS in a box." Google has put their software, built for the cloud, onto a standalone computer, so organizations can use "the Google cloud" behind the firewall.

This is different from search software built from the ground up to run in an enterprise. Organizations that do not understand the different may find themselves spending millions due to a lack of understanding.

Is one better than the other? Well, your path should be based on budget and business need. However, explaining the differences is hard and one that Google does not try to communicate with clients. (They genuinely believe that this is "obvious" and "easy." Ah, to have that luxury!) Google pitches the benefits of a "SaaS": low cost, rapid deployment, easy to use etc. However, after time most businesses want to customize their search system, and few think that they can with a GSA because it is an "appliance."

Enterprise search systems are "fuzzy" for a reason. Every enterprise search vendor gathers requirements before someone (generally a search professional from the company at hundreds of dollars an hour) sets up the system. There is no "default" setting.

"SaaS in a box" is different. Businesses can get up and running quickly and offer search results in a day. Businesses turn it on, crawl some content, and move on with life. I am impressed by the GSA because many are happy with this, fully appreciative of how complicated search systems have become. However, some businesses complain about their GSA results and call in other enterprise software vendors and solutions as opposed to investing some time and money in customizing their GSA. (Enterprise search vendors are not the best source of search advice in general.)

Customize the GSA? Customize a "SaaS in the box." Yes, this is possible but terribly understood. In the Google (and cloud) fashion, you have to manipulate the information through APIs. You want to improve your box? Just go here: http://code.google.com/apis/searchappliance/documentation/50/index.html. Simple! Google itself believes that customizing the GSA is "easy." However, based on some the negative feedback in reviews and lack of customization of GSA owners, it appears otherwise. Remember that search is not easy.

Google does not provide professional services to customize the box, so there isn't anyone educating the GSA clients on the products and potential. Additionally, search professional services are not cheap, so many businesses have not planned for the additional costs to improve the search system. They do believe that a "Google in a box" will solve all their search ills by magic. Compare the Google "credit card" sales cycle to an enterprise software sales cycle where highly paid professional service and software sales people set cost and effort expectations. The opportunity for confusion is readily apparent.

To those managers out there, realize the the GSA is a "SaaS in a box" and as with any SaaS service, there are ways to customize your experience. However, the procurement of professional services will fall on you. Google do not have sales people trying to sell you customizations, and the universe of people who understand the search space is small.

If you don't think that the GSA can do "something" or are unhappy with it, take a step back and think about your goals. I have seen firsthand businesses switch a GSA for an much more expensive enterprise search product, not for requirement reasons, but simple lack of understanding.

The current economic situation does not allow business to purchase expensive systems for the wrong reasons. Your business may need enterprise search software as opposed to a "SaaS in the box," but make justify the budget differences.

This goes for any SaaS service whether it is in the clouds or in a box.