Google Jumps Into Business Apps

Published: March 15, 2010

by Timothy Prickett Morgan

Maybe we should just call it Google/400 and get on with it?

Not content with owning the search market and expanding into office suites and smartphone and soon netbook and smartbook operating systems, cash-drenched Google is living up to the enormity of its name and unlimited aspirations by expanding its cloud computing efforts to include actual business applications with its Google Apps Marketplace.

As you can see from the Apps Marketplace site, it has that austerity that we have all come to know and love. These are not ERP systems, mind you, but for plenty of small businesses living on a tight budget and wanting as little as possible to do with owning and managing IT infrastructure, the applications that ISVs are plunking onto the Apps Marketplace are going to be just what they need to get started. And having gotten started using SaaS-style, cloudy infrastructure-based applications, just how easy do you think it will be try to sell an SMB a Power Systems box, much less a Smart Cube appliance or a Winders box?

By the way, I stand corrected. There is a baby ERP suite called myERP.com, obviously riffing on the old name for SAP's ERP suite from a few years back when the Internet seemed new. The ERP suite is, of course, fully integrated with Google's Apps, Gmail, and Calendar. Ditto for Rhino Accounting and Intuit Online Payroll.

Google says that two million businesses, representing a total of 25 million seats, are already using its online applications. Just so you get a sense of scope, the AS/400 peaked at 275,000 companies and around 25 million seats in 1998.

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