Denis’ Blog

Google today announced that Google Docs, the Web based word processor of Google, will go off line in the coming weeks

This is a long awaited news. Security and off line usage are two things that prevent Google Apps to go mainstream in business. Security is now managed with Google APIs that enable full integration with corporation Identity Management solution (especially SAML based). In a few weeks, you will be able to use Google word processor in the train, in the plane…well..anywhere…

Add on top of that that Firefox 3, the next release of Firefox due to June, will integrate off line mode, probably compatible with Google Gears, the Google off line engine (based on open source database SQlite), and you have a great view of what is coming. The great war.

It seems that Google for the Enterprise, Year 0, will be this year. As posted by Christan Fauré on his blog , the first Press Release presenting a shift from a large corporation to Google Apps could occur in the coming weeks. If Google Apps is not yet ready for a any large corporation (because of MS Word legacy, poor Google Spreadsheet features…), this PR will demonstrate that Google Apps is not dedicated to Small and Medium Business. I do not know what company Christian is thinking about, and since Christian is not working in the same company as I am, I bet we do not think about the same companies. So we can wait for several announces. As many of you, I was first skeptical about SaaS, especially with Google Apps. Salesforce.com dominance is obvious, given the level of features and possible integration with corporate IT. For Google, I thought it was just targeted to SME market. After a quick look and some explanations form my beloved CTOs or my friend François, it is obvious that Google has many of the items a large corporation is looking for. You think that Google Apps has no SSO? Look at this. SAML based SSO. Many more example will come. Yes. This is for sure. Google Apps Year 0 will be 2008.