Microsoft: Google is failing in the enterprise

[Emil]

Microsoft says that Google is failing in the enterprise space and that the search giant is "akin to Microsoft maybe 20 years ago." Google has been trying very hard to lure companies and governments to its cloud-computing options but many, including Microsoft, point out that Gmail and Google Apps are less complete and less reliable than Microsoft's offerings. Microsoft is preparing to launch Office 365, the company's latest cloud productivity package. It looks like the software giant wants to go on the offensive beforehand.

"I would say that they're failing, yes," Tom Rizzo, senior director of Microsoft Online Services, told ComputerWorld. "I would say that the results have not shown that they're successful in the space. We've had customers who've gone to Google and have come back to Microsoft."

Google this week has had some success: the US General Services Administration, which manages the federal government's property and technology, announced it is switching its 15,000 employees to Gmail and Google Apps. It is the first full agency to embrace the cloud.

Rizzo decided to post on his own blog in response to this news. "There's no doubt that businesses are talking to Google, and hearing their pitch, but despite all the talk, Google can't avoid the fact that often times they cannot meet basic requirements," he wrote. "For instance, in California, the state determined that Google couldn't meet many of their basic requirements around functionality and security. Rather than address deficiencies in their product by developing a more robust set of productivity tools, Google cried foul instead of addressing these basic needs."

Google recently filed a lawsuit against the US government because it allegedly only considered Microsoft solutions. Apparently only Redmond's offerings met the requirements for consideration, and Mountain View's simply did not.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/41421-microsoft-google-is-failing-in-the-enterprise.html

 

[satty]

"I would say that they're failing, yes"
Why they hate Google so much...? Is it because they failed to be the ONE in internet because of Google.? After all their abuse on OS monopoly I don't like their struggle to bring Google down. Microsoft must admit, that their DOMINATION IS FALLING...!!!

 

[Chazz]

They do not like google because google is their competitor in almost everything they do. Google wants companies to ditch Microsoft's Office products and will soon be creating a operating system to go after Micrrosoft's bread and butter. Google and Apple(as well as blackberry and palm) demolished windows mobile line.

I can't think of any reason not to dislike them if you were a Microsoft employee, and if you keep up with this site you'd see that Google's CEO has a lot more negative things to say about Microsoft's doings than the other way around.

 

[TeamworkGuy2]

They are both very big organization, competing in the same markets...
They are definitely going to trade words quite often about how the other company can't do this or that right.
I think it is a good sign, because it means there's competition, which is almost always better for the end consumer

 

[Guest]

Better for the consumer doesn't apply in the case of the Government. Obviously MS's superior product didn't help there.

 

[kiddesign]

game is ending for microsoft =|

 

[stewi0001]

well kids as we can see people never grown up. instead of focusing on their own issues lets bully others to feel better about ourselves.

And a side note STOP NEGATIVE ADs!

 

[madboyv1]

stewi0001 said:
And a side note STOP NEGATIVE ADs!

They won't, it's part of their way of life. Microsoft does it, Apple does it, Google does it, just about every other major corporation does it at some point. =p

 

[vangrat]

Google is failing now, but give it time. In the enterprise world, this is still a new product that is untested. In time Google may end up being something everyone want and enjoy...only time will tell.

 

[Guest]

The Google Apps product suite, while well developed and has a tonne of features lacks a lot of what corporates would consider necessity.

The Google guys come in and sell it as "get rid of your own Infrastructure and move to the cloud". Which is great in principle, but not so much in reality.

Yes GMail is probably ready for corporate usage, but beyond that, the rest of their product line is not.

Google Docs has no backup or archiving system, a user accidently deletes a file, what do you do then? Google's answer is to replicate all files to your own file server and backup internally. This defeats the purpose of moving to the cloud.

Ultimatley, it wouldn't matter if your on MS, Linux, or any other internal system for mail, files, Intranet and the likes, you have the ability to backup, restore, manage, restrict what users can do.

The cloud is currently limited in this area, and that is not just Google. Depending on the industry, compliance rules change. Most cloud services that do provide backups, only provide for a 2 week rotating period, which a lot of industries cannot operate in.

 

[aj_the_kidd]

Tom Rizzo made some good points, it will be a couple more years before google become a threat in the corporate world, if they become a threat at all. Humans are creatures of habit and since MS has been dominate for so long, its gonna be tough for google, but if any company can do it, its google.

 

[Guest]

I would have to say that having used Google Apps quite a lot over the last few years, Google simply haven't put the effort into making it meet enterprise requirements. If you're a company looking at moving to Google apps you really would have to question their commitment to making it work for you. The word processing and spreadsheet apps from the start have lacked so many things that one would have taken for granted in Excel or even in other, older applications like Lotus Smartsuite that I've just given up on them. You can get so far and then there's just one feature you're looking for and it's not there so you have to come up with a workaround - It makes it so frustrating.

If Google were really serious about taking over the apps market they would have put some resources into making them work the way everyone needs them to work. You really do get the feeling that the people developing Google Apps never actually use office applications and are permanently off in their own coding worlds.

Perhaps it's a particular mindset with applications developers: I used to use OpenOffice for a long time but there again it came to a time where I really had to question where they were going with it. It seemed to be that any time people wanted things to work like MS Office (and not just because they wanted it to be the same as MS Office but because it actually was a better way of doing it) the developers would blast back at the contributor telling them that if they want to use MS Office then get lost and use it! If your spell checking and dictionary settings have gone askew in OpenOffice good luck to you trying to fix it! Half the time you really don't know if you're changing the right setting or not and it's not as if there hasn't been the time to get these things fixed.

Since Office 2007, I feel Microsoft have taken a huge step back in terms of usability for people who are reasonably competent with applications, so I only really choose to use Office 2003. Why should I have to pay a third party just to get full menus back?

The only app that Google have that really works is GMail and I wouldn't use anything else for my mail - Outlook is so desperately slow and bloated that I really dread having to open it up on workday mornings. Similarly with Thunderbird, which promised so much at the start but has now developed what seems to be such a perversely non-linear approach to accessing its functionality that you need to invest a lot of time learning how to use it to best advantage. Every time I go to use it I find myself having to reorient myself, looking through all the menus and options just to get going again and it could be so much easier.

The long and short of it is that Google are leaving it a bit long to be trying to catch up in the online office apps market and although I haven't used the Office 2010 online apps yet I imagine that if they are in any way similar to the local apps that Google are playing a dangerous waiting game, unless they are willing to start throwing some more competent resources at it (perhaps it's just a 20% project at the moment, who knows?) I'm no big fan of Microsoft and would hate to see MS Office become the dominant online apps platform but at the moment I still haven't seen any credible alternative which is very sad.