I've been thinking about writing about the topic for some months now. However, I have postponed it, because of the need to publish news and also the simple lack of time. Today, one fact made this inadmissible: the news that Google finally launch your online database.
This is very important news because, if confirmed, put Google in competition for the competitive database market, today dominated by Oracle, IBM and Microsoft, but with one big difference: These companies provide products that are customer CPD resident, while BigTable appears to be a fully Web resident product (perhaps with some version in traditional format). I am not surprised by this information, because Google is a major producer of databases, which are used in their own applications. In fact, I believed this would be one of the next Google Apps products, but I confess that I believed they would start by providing a small, easy-to-operate product to compete with Microsoft Access and Google Apps. Oracle Database Lite, in the offline world, and with the Zoho DB & Imports, in the Web world. It seems, however, that it will be a product capable of processing large masses of data for domestic users, but also for small, medium and large corporations.
But Google Apps isn't just about a database that doesn't have it yet. He already has Gmail, Google Talk, Google Calendar, Google Docs, Google Sites, Page Creator, Homepage, Control Panel, APIs and Postini security services.
But that does not mean that he is ready. Quite the contrary. The future BigTable would be just another step in this strategy of getting people and organizations to keep their data and documents in the big one. web cloud. And that seems to be a goal that Google has been pursuing since launching GMail.
If you wish to continue on this path, you must also launch the long awaited GDrive. But can't stop by. To have an idea, just to compete with the Zoho, which has solutions for businesses on the web, having to develop project manager, customer relationship system (CRM), billing system, meeting management with video conferencing and human resources control. In other words, it would have to develop a whole system of ERP and CRM.
It turns out that Zoho nor the leader of this segment in the online market, which dominated by Salesforce, a company, however, focused on CRM. Not to mention the competition with Microsoft, Oracle and SAP.
If you think, however, that Google may stick around. I think not. I believe that in your long-term strategy, if you really contemplate migrating all business services to the Web, you have to compete directly with Microsoft, Oracle, SAP and Salesforce. Maybe even buying Oracle or SAP and also the Salesforce (what already been in the crosshairs of Google and now seems to be the target of the rest). After all, if this is the strategy, then Google has to invest heavily in Data Warehousing, Data mining, Business intelligence, ECM / GED and Supply chain managementIt also, of course, generates specialization for each sector of the economy. It is a millionaire market and would hardly be left out. However, this is not something she could go into now. If it competes, it must do so in a few years and would hardly escape a process of major mergers and acquisitions.
To give you an idea of ​​the importance of this market, I give you one thing: Most US taxpayers file their income tax returns through accountants in India. Documents are sent digitally via an ECM / GED system. This is just the tip of an iceberg, which tends to grow exponentially in the coming years.
What is not said in the news of the release of the next release of BigTable that may, perhaps, be embedded in this application some functions of Data Warehousing and Business Intelligence. To be? I do not know. But it does not seem impossible to me, since the company certainly has some internal experience in this knowledge.
It's important that we follow Google's path over the next few years to see if the strategy really goes this way. However, one thing seems certain to us: the Google Apps It is far from complete.
