LIVE: Google Apps Event–Q&A With Dave Girouard
Moving on now to the Q&A with Google (GOOG) enterprise head Dave Girouard:
- Q: How much revenue flows through this (Apps)?
Girouard: Hundreds of millions of dollars…that’s as explicit as we’re going to get.
- Q: How is the company dealing with Microsoft (MSFT) and its entrenchment in this particular sector?
Long meandering answer that ends with this: The company has a new App Reseller program that it debuted in April. It will give it more feet on the street and expand the ecosystem. That’s a start, I suppose.
- Q: Is Outlook the only app that makes sense for this sort of sync, or is the company considering doing something similar with Excel and PowerPoint as well?
Google’s clearly already put a lot of thought into this and expects to pursue it. That said, says Girouard: “We don’t view the world as you’ve got to get rid of Office and use Google Apps instead. We see it as more nuanced than that.”
- Q: Did the IT folks in the room have any concerns about Google’s commitment to these services?
Apparently not. The Morgans Hotel Group rep says has has “no reservations about the future viability of the product.” Gmail’s been around for a while now, hasn’t it? Also, notes Avago guy: “‘don’t be evil’ is one of Google’s core values. “We’re taking them at their word.”
- Q: What areas are showstoppers for CIOs considering a migration to Google Apps? What services and apps do they absolutely need to retain control over?
The Morgans Hotel rep says none. “We’re looking to move everything to the cloud.” The Avago and Genentech reps say pretty much the same thing. The Genentech rep: “Anything in the cloud is fine by us.”
- Q: What areas can developers play in without being crushed by Google?
Giouard says there are many. “We’re going to have a very large installed base of Google Apps users and there’s a great opportunity here for developers to sell into that. We are really opening up the stack to the developer world and that’s going to be great for our business customers.”
- Q for Genentech rep: At what point will you shut down Outlook?
“I don’t see us shutting it down any time in the near future, but we hope that the number of Outlook users shrinks as our employees see the benefits of the Web and Google Apps.”
- Asked for his feelings on companies that use the term “cloud computing” to peddle non-cloud computing services, Giouard replies: IT giants have co-opted the cloud computing term.
Interesting comment from Genentech (DNA) rep amid remarks out mobile needs: “I can’t get Android phones fast enough for our folks.”