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Google yesterday removed the ‘beta’ tag from many of its software services, including Gmail, Google Docs, Google Calendar and Google Talk. When a software provider lifts the beta designation from a product, it usually means that the vendor is confident that they’re ready for full-blown use. In Google’s case, it’s a way of signaling to enterprise customers that the services are available for prime-time use.
Most of the services, particularly Gmail, which has been in beta for five years, have been used by companies of varying sizes for quite some time now. Google’s latest move is another step in its aggressive efforts to go after Microsoft with its cloud-based services. And a very important one.
"We've come to appreciate that the beta tag just doesn't fit for large enterprises that aren't keen to run their business on software that sounds like it's still in the trial phase," said Matthew Glotzbach, director of product management for Google Enterprise in a blog post.
For all the attention Google has received for its Web-based services in recent months, it still faces an uphill battle on many fronts. Sure, Google offers enterprise customers a compelling price points on Google Apps -- $50 per user per year, which is a fraction of what big Microsoft shops are paying. But Microsoft Outlook dominates the e-mail market and you can be sure that large enterprises aren’t going to suddenly rip and replace their Microsoft Office environments in favor of Google Apps.
However, more large companies could be inclined to take portions of Google Apps for a test run and potentially replace their Microsoft suites as they become more confident in the reliability and functionality of Google’s Web-based services and look to slash their software costs.
On top of this, Google yesterday announced plans to develop an operating system based on its Chrome browser. By focusing Chrome OS initially at netbook devices, Google is going directly after Microsoft’s Windows operating system. Google plans to introduce Chrome OS online later this year to the open source community and then make the OS available for netbooks in the second half of 2010.
The plans for Chrome OS fit right into Google’s Web-based services strategy for making applications available through a Web browser. Whether that approach is compelling enough for big companies to pull the trigger is yet to be seen.
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