Computing
Google App Marketplace Could Revolutionize Cloud Computing
Mar 10th
You must have noticed that Google has been slowly inching towards a culture of Online cloud computing, and most companies, individuals and businesses have adapted to the culture of cloud computing because of its obvious advantages. Cloud computing allows users to manage data, applications and information in a way that traditional software or hardware don’t allow and the most important advantage is that you could access your data, application and software from any computer in the world, provided you have the ID and password.
However, cloud computing itself is not without disadvantages, and the most unpleasant one is the lack of applications directly integrated into Google. Hence, users copy and paste data, use different applications time and again in order to get everything into the cloud. Google itself has admitted that it does not have the expertise to integrate the hundreds of business applications out there into the cloud.
Thus Google has now announced that Google Apps Marketplace is now open for business. Developers and software providers can now join the new Online store for integrated business applications. These cloud applications will allow Google Apps customers to discover newer applications without having to manage each one of them separately.
At the moment, there are already more than 50 companies who are selling their applications. Some of the apps already available are
Intuit Online Payroll: It allows users to run payroll, pay taxes and check paystubs within an integrated online office environment.
Manymoon: It helps in organizing and sharing information with co-workers and partners, including tasks, projects, documents, status updates and links.
Professional Services Connect (PS Connect): This provides contextually relevant information about people, projects, customers and transactions so that one could make better decisions.
JIRA Studio: This app helps to track and manage project issues and workflow, especially in design and development of tools.
What the Google Apps Marketplace Is
It works similar to the Apple App Store, but is only cheaper. Google is asking the developers and businesses a onetime fee of $100 and 20% of the revenue in exchange to the access to 25 million Google users. Apps would be authenticated using OpenID and would be secured through oAuth. The applications would be accessible through a universal Google Apps navigation system.
How It Could Help Businesses
Businesses and companies could stop using multiple applications and get rid of the burden of having to remember multiple passwords for each applications. Whether you are an employee or a proprietor, you could use your Google account to access all these applications, and edit/use based on the permissions you have.
How It Could Help Individuals
Google Apps are used by not just companies and businesses but also students, freelance workers, and independent professionals. There are several account management apps, data related apps and other applications that could help the end user to make use of Google cloud computing and the Google App Marketplace makes it easy for everyone.
How Cool Is It Anyway?
Like I mentioned earlier, cloud computing has already become popular and most of us have been using Google Docs, and other apps successfully. The marketplace would allow us to access more applications which are not developed by Google but have been authenticated nevertheless. This allows for a streamlined system of working and managing data, software, accounts and information.
Companies and individuals could make use of payroll, data entry, management, and an office suite for instance and integrate them to the Google account. It would also help in terms of social media, data management and communication. Google App Marketplace could thus be a great beginning and a step in the direction!
Read more: Google App Marketplace Could Revolutionize Cloud Computing | Walyou
Related posts
Google Apps Marketplace Launches as New Cloud Computing Store
Mar 10th
Google March 9 opened its Google Apps Marketplace, an online store selling enterprises business applications that integrate with and extend Google Apps.
The Google Apps Marketplace will let Google Apps users access business apps for project management, billing and accounting, travel management, and other services. This will provide third-party software
developers a larger cloud computing channel into which to sell their applications.
Click here for a tour of Google Apps Marketplace.
| Resource Library: |
The move, announced during a Campfire One event at the company’s Mountain View, Calif., headquarters, is Google’s most aggressive play to drive growth for Google Apps, a suite of SAAS (software as a service) collaboration applications. The play also threatens existing cloud application stores such as Salesforce.com’s AppExchange.
Google Apps, which Google offers in free and paid versions, includes Gmail; Google Docs word processing, spreadsheet and presentation applications; and Google Sites publishing software.
Google Apps has picked up more than 2 million business customers who opt to let Google host their business data so they don’t have to maintain on-premises solutions such as Microsoft SharePoint or IBM Lotus Notes on their own servers.
However, collaboration applications are only a part of the SAAS software ecosystem. As the success of Salesforce.com shows, there is a burgeoning market for enterprise applications based on the cloud.
To wit, the Google Apps Marketplace allows Google Apps administrators to purchase integrated third-party cloud applications and deploy them to their domains.
Google Engineering David Glazer, who shepherded Google’s OpenSocial movement, said that while many businesses
Related posts
SaaS a big winner in health stimulus
Mar 8th
One conclusion I was able to draw from last week’s HIMSS show is that Software as a Service (SaaS) is the only way clinics and small medical practices are going to get health IT in time to collect that sweet, sweet stimulus cash.
From big SaaS companies like AllScripts to smaller ones like Practice Fusion, the buzz was electric and the lesson obvious.
(Practice Fusion CEO Ryan Howard is shown at his HIMSS reception last week. He’s expecting a better year than the Phillies slugger of the same name. Which is saying something. (Then again, I’m a Braves fan.))
Most large hospitals have their solutions in place, or are in the process of implementation. This vendor relationship may be the most important thing on a hospital CEO’s plate right now.
From what I gathered on the HIMSS show floor, most of these vendors are lining their customers up to collect cash on investments made long ago.
Collecting on the 2011 meaningful use guidelines, watered down as they’re expected to be, will be fairly simple, and lobbying by both hospitals and vendors could water down the 2013 and 2015 guidelines so they don’t have to spend anything above current plans to collect on them.
Many small practices have been assuming that the hospitals will bring them their health IT. Admitting privileges are a powerful weapon. If the hospital mandates you go with McKesson, you may have no choice.
But small practices may well ask, what’s in it for me? Going with the hospital’s IT solution only ties you closer to the hospital. You have your clinic because you want to stay independent. And many hospital systems were not really designed to scale down.
Thus, SaaS. There is little up-front expense, no server in the closet. You can back up records overnight with Carbonite or a USB-linked hard drive — you can backup 2 terabytes at Costco now for under $300, including software.
SaaS vendors can scale quickly thanks to cloud computing. The biggest problem may be assuring clinics that their broadband connection won’t go down mid-day. But a lightweight version of the software, again on a nurse’s station, can handle that eventuality.
Services like SharEHR claim to require no training while others like Practice Fusion cost nothing thanks to ads. If the hospital demands your records, you can talk to them about that later.
Contrast that with the cost of putting in servers, wiring your office, training your staff, and learning it yourself, which is what many EHR vendors were offering clinics just a few years ago. The horror stories from that are many.
Personally I am still waiting for the glorious tech revolution to strike the doctors I use most often. My pediatrician has a PC on his desk to help with billing, but the kids’ records are still on paper. My internist is also paper driven. My dentist is a computer hobbyist but still brings out a file folder each time I visit. Last time I got new prescriptions I still drove them to the pharmacist.
This tells me there is still an enormous opportunity to automate small practices, but 2011 will be here before you know it and the only way I can see them going is to buy it as a service, stimulus cash or no stimulus cash.
Related posts
Cloud computing at RSA: It’s not all fluff
Mar 5th
he RSA Conference invited several guest speakers to talk about a variety of topics surrounding cloud computing, including security, value propositions and cost savings to consumers and IT departments which want to reduce costs of information storage. Guests offered various views on scalability, security risks and efficiency models that indicate that there are significant value added services that can reduce IT costs dramatically.
For consumers, the decisions of IT services used by various sized businesses convinced into using cloud computing affects how cloud information and products are used, and how the vendor manages and protects information that potentially exposes you to events beyond your control. Businesses recognize these potential risks and are aware of impacts they may bring upon themselves if cloud computing services are vulnerable.
The evidence is clear – networks are hacked into everyday. Credit card information, transaction records, bank account information, personal identification records, etc. are retrieved through network intrusions regardless if they are stored in managed private networks or outsourced to public cloud based providers. So what makes sense to implement?
Value propositions of shared infrastructure costs spread over a number of customers at a central data center repository suggests that there are significant savings to be had by entering into Cloud based network services. Cloud computing offers different architecture designs, some are good and some are poor. Those that are enabled with shared data drives, network switches, routers, firewalls, intrusion detection systems and VPN domains and hardware should be thoroughly reviewed and analyzed during your service provider review. Consumers have little choice — and little knowledge of how CIO’s and IT departments make these choices.
The components involved in making such decisions are pretty basic, yet continue to be immersed into classic Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt (FUD) debates. Network hacking and intrusions into large network infrastructure such as Google, Intel, Yahoo, and financial data centers are everyday news.
Should something go wrong…
Are the advantages of Cloud computing compared in-house management of data worth the risks or not? Are the financial savings gobbled up in tarnished image and damage control? There are white papers offering several views on the subject here on ZDNet. You can decide from a technical merits perspective if the human and hardware costs savings can make a difference to your IT budget. These key benchmarks of return on investment can be categorically stated and offer ‘reasonable’ accuracy in financial reporting terms.
What cannot be put into the financial statement or projected costs savings are the unknowns in your company’s brand protection should something go wrong. Other considerations are litigation, insurance (risk) costs, and other service liability claims that could arise.
Soon to be a part of the equation are privacy and document responsibility protection costs that are not possible to calculate because the laws concerning how you protect your customer information are in a state of flux — and tort reform is not likely to be addressed in the near future. The more information is stored in central repositories where information about you is collected and used from single source environments, the more risk is taken upon by the provider of cloud computing suppliers. In a business environment that currently is experiencing difficult cost saving exercises, cloud computing is a potentially attractive option. In the current political environment the old business mantra of: ” too big to fail” is no longer true. Just ask GM, Lehman Brothers, and just about all pension funds. Today, a lot of companies have significant IT costs that potentially hinge upon whether or not they become the next dead, nearly dead, or put on life support entity. This may trigger how much risk a company undertakes managing information and intellectual property.
Consumers in many ways have simply become numb to it all. It’s almost acceptable that it is going to happen and why fight it. The tolerance level appears to be very high to potential impacts to an individual’s information. But how much more are people willing to take before it’s too much – let alone too late to fix? The tolerance to credit card fraud has been acceptable in the past because the consumer has never been liable for damages. But as people become accustomed to electronic health care records, personal profile data and purchasing history becoming intermixed and interconnected, that may change how much risk and tolerance consumers are willing to put up with.
Even Google is vulnerable
It was OK when it didn’t happen to you, but when it does, the tune suddenly changes. Data centers that are operated by third parties invite more than just criminal intent, including government oversight, profiling, personal attack, manipulation and legal litigation that may wind up being more expensive to you and the company that entered into a cloud computing service than realized. In fact, I would suggest that cloud computing service providers like Google are exposed to legal and financial risks that could lead to their demise.
In the United States, government agencies like DOJ, FTC, FITC, FBI will be of no help until after the fact. They simply pick up the pieces after an incident occurs. There are no regulations or federal guidelines that are enforceable in a cloud computing environment prior to commencing service. The privacy and criminal laws are not certification or compliance elements. ISO standards and other litmus tests are not mandatory, nor are they sanctioned by any government agency. In some countries, like Canada and Australia, there are requirements with respects to privacy and information security to be in compliance with concerning management of information, but not how they are physically stored within a cloud provider’s infrastructure. Insurance companies are just beginning to learn how to offer product liability products concerning Cloud service providers and they will require certifications like IS0 27001 and SAS70 reviews.
Of particular concern is access to information by government authorities. By hosting your information with third party entities, you may not be even aware of search warrants and monitoring by government agencies and this creates potential vulnerabilities that are not only beyond your control, but potentially damage your company’s credibility - permanently. Processes, policies and jurisdiction issues are upcoming hot spots creating significant legal and ethical questions that are not transparent. Service providers can stress that they have the best security and controls in the world. They are no good to you as a company or individual when the authorities knock on their door and you don’t even know.
Criminal and intelligence communities’ attraction to attack such a valuable commodity will always be in demand. Consumer sympathy, complacency and tolerance will collide and cannot be relied upon for recovery. Cloud computing is an appropriate description for such services. CIO’s and consumers need to understand that SOME clouds may look like nice fluffy places to park your data, others but they can turn out to be towering cumulus clouds emitting thundering lightning bolts that eventually hit you, maybe more than once, and leaving nothing behind.
Related posts
How To Move Your Business To The Cloud
Mar 5th
Tips for evaluating and implementing cloud computing technologies.
How in the world does a chief information officer or information technology professional cope with the challenge of delivering solutions for the second decade of the 21st century when they are saddled with 1980s technology?
Add the issues surrounding reduced budgets and the ongoing knock on IT workers–that they do not respond in a timely manner to changes in business–and you have the setting for change. Both in how IT delivers solutions and how IT needs to change itself.
The good news is that for once in almost 30 years, software is changing. No longer are you stuck with simply new features using outdated technology. You now have an alternative technology solution. The historical technology providers are, of course, trying to maintain their hold on you and your budget dollars by marketing “internal clouds,” alliances that merge hardware and software stacks that imply “infrastructure to application” environments but totally miss the point and the benefit of cloud computing. But of course you would do this, too, as part of the innovator’s dilemma.
As a CIO, how does your company take advantage of this changing technology and business model called the cloud?
There are a few things to consider with cloud computing. First, a number of research firms suggest that cloud implementations can take up to 50% less time, and total cost of ownership can be up to 46% cheaper. Both of these are shown in numerous white papers provided by cloud solution providers, and for the most part are reflective of the power and benefits cloud computing can provide.
However, one caution: Should you need or require multiple integrations, go cautiously. Integrating cloud solutions to on-premise solutions still takes time. Although somewhat less expensive, it still can add to project costs. Also, ERP cloud providers have some perverse view that makes integrating their solutions with other necessary cloud solutions very difficult. This is still the throwback to the “old software model” where your vendor “knows best.” Key takeaway: As you get into cloud computing, make sure your vendors not only have robust application programming interfaces, but also that they have demonstrated those integrations with other vendors you may be considering.
Another consideration in cloud computing is the vendor’s openness regarding service-level agreements, disaster recovery and security. Even the larger providers have their outages, but they still deliver higher uptimes than your internal data centers. However, with newer vendors and providers, make sure they are invested in your SLA so it is not just a contract term.
Final consideration for you in exploring cloud computing solutions: customization. One of the key benefits of cloud computing is the ability to customize the solution to some degree. So you have the advantage of changing the cloud solution to your process and behavior; with on-premise solutions, you need to change your behavior to their process.
Cloud computing will change your internal business model. It allows you to significantly reduce your capital outlays for hardware and software.
Related posts
Microsoft on Cloud Computing: Live Webcast 1PM EST
Mar 4th
The Cloud: Exciting New Possibilities
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer discusses Microsoft’s cloud computing strategy. Watch the live Webcast March 4 at 1:00 p.m. EST/10 a.m. PST.
LIVE WEBCAST
Related posts
Cloud Computing: Will It Be Government’s Venus Fly Trap? Gartner
Mar 4th
The cryptographer’s panel at the RSA conference is always my favorite part. At this year’s conference, Ron Rivest (the R in RSA) made a comment along the lines of “One of my fears for the future is that cloud computing is a ‘dream come true’ for government intelligence agencies.” He actually used a more colorful term for ‘dream come true’ but his basic point was something I point out to Gartner clients all the time: in many countries (the US included) companies are legally (and often illegally) required to cooperate with government requests to surreptitiously monitor communications and content flowing through or stored on their systems.
There is a school of thought that true cloud computing means no care at all about the physical location of the storage. The fact that many governments can compel any company or service provider operating in their country to expose their customer’s data means for real businesses, location does matter.
Does encryption solve the problem? Only if the control of the keys is completely outside of the control of the service provider and if there is complete and guaranteed transparency into all access to the encrypted data. The reason for that and clause: with unlimited local access to encrypted data, government funded brute force attacks are much more likely to eat into the safety margin of long key lengths. And, as Brian Snow pointed on on the cryptographers panel, unlike the commercial/academic crypto community, the government crypto community does not publicize its breakthroughs in cracking algorithms or in developing orders of magnitude faster brute force capabilities.
Does striping or scattering the data across multiple data centers in multiple countries solve the problem? Assuming (a very, very big assumption) that the cloud service provider has not made concessions to a host country that would allow access anyway, this has possibilities – but I think there are a myriad of ways to attack this approach. Encryption has been banged on for years and we know that most proprietary encryption approaches are not secure. Striping/scattering for security has not been banged on and I am positive that many, many implementations will turn out not to be secure.
What about striping/scattering encrypted bits? Well, security in depth is always more expensive but not always more secure. This approach has possibilities, but just adding more “rounds” just as often introduces new vulnerabilities rather than increasing security.
I was on a panel at RSA on tokenization, and the idea of “tokenization as a service” is where I think more promise lies. Use cloud storage for the non-sensitive data (which by volume is usually more than 99% of the storage) and keep the sensitive data at home or at least in-country. Use the cloud for what it is good at and don’t use it for what is not good at.
