7 ms·

Google is putting a lot of resources into enterprise productivity software with gsuite. Google's strategy there largely revolves around letting students use the

Google is putting a lot of resources into enterprise productivity software with gsuite. Google's strategy there largely revolves around letting students use the software for free and giving away chromebooks to school districts so that ten years from now every college graduate will be more comfortable with gsuite than microsoft office, so a bit of a long game there. This is basically microsoft's entire business, so there's definitely a huge market there. They also have GCP which is chugging along I guess.

xapata 4y ago
To some extent, that was Microsoft's strategy in the 90s and 00s.
substation13 4y ago
They sure missed boat with Teams / Slack.
paganel 4y ago
MS also famously has lots and lots of pretty decent re-sellers all around the world, which re-sellers have their own very deep lists of business contacts. Afaik Google has tried to get something out of the enterprise space for a good 5 years now (I'd say), ever since they launched GCP, but it's just not in their DNA to do and especially to maintain business sales.
- Andrew_nenakhov 4y ago
  What enterprise would want to buy products from a company infamously known to cancel products left and right?
- bushbaba 4y ago
  Google has tried at least since 2002. So it's been 20 years. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Search_Appliance https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Search_Appliance The Google Search Appliance was a respectable business in of itself. They deprecated it as it wasn't large enough for "Google". It would have been in the ranks of peer unicorn startups given the revenue prior to being killed off.
  - giobox 4y ago
    It was also a business for which the writing was very clearly on the wall. How many companies are left that still sell a SaaS/PaaS that requires you to install bespoke on-prem server hardware? I'm guessing its a much smaller list than it was 2002. For crawling/indexing, I can't even imagine convincing IT we need a dedicated appliance today! For the problem GSA solved, its just not needed anymore and subsumed by other google products/services that don't need me to install a rack-device like: https://workspace.google.com/products/cloud-search/ https://workspace.google.com/products/cloud-search/ As someone else has pointed out, GSuite has seen success in the enterprise space, so their enterprise efforts aren't a total write-off. With so many students now on GSuite at their school or colleges and a generation effectively raised on Google Docs... I certainly wouldn't bet against it today.
    - chris11 4y ago
      I can imagine on prem hw being a benefit if a company didn't want a 3rd party to index material. But yeah, I wouldn't want to manage an on-prem setup unless it was necessary.
- Melatonic 4y ago
  GSuite (now Google Workspace) is actually chugging along nicely and continuously improved. I bet it becomes one of their reliable long term products.
- fomine3 4y ago
  I also see decent Google Workspace resellers.
arebop 4y ago
1/3 of Microsoft's revenues and operating income come from their cloud business, which has done much better than Google's.
- colinmhayes 4y ago
  Azure has largely been propelled by microsoft's strong business relationships. I think it's likely that google sees gsuite and GCP as synergies given how successful msft has been at parlaying their office contracts into azure signups.
  - scarface74 4y ago
    You assume that Google has any competencies in dealing with the enterprise or anything that requires high-touch. And then they hired an Oracle veteran to head GCP. What could possibly go wrong? https://www.crn.com/news/cloud/google-cloud-ceo-thomas-kurian-makes-his-move https://www.crn.com/news/cloud/google-cloud-ceo-thomas-kuria...
    - colinmhayes 4y ago
      Oracle is probably the most competent enterprise software sales organization other than microsoft, seems like that's a pretty reasonable decision if they focus on building out the sales team. And Google probably realizes enterprise sales is a huge problem for them which is why they're investing in these products to make it easier to grow the organization. Selling to enterprises is something Google needs to get good at if they want to grow long term, having strong products to sell helps attract talent and close sales which gives their team experience.
      - scarface74 4y ago
        I have never in 25 years - most of that in the enterprise - has dealt with Oracle enterprise sales and came out feeling good about it.
        4y ago

xapata 4y ago

To some extent, that was Microsoft's strategy in the 90s and 00s.

substation13 4y ago

They sure missed boat with Teams / Slack.

paganel 4y ago

MS also famously has lots and lots of pretty decent re-sellers all around the world, which re-sellers have their own very deep lists of business contacts. Afaik Google has tried to get something out of the enterprise space for a good 5 years now (I'd say), ever since they launched GCP, but it's just not in their DNA to do and especially to maintain business sales.

Andrew_nenakhov 4y ago
What enterprise would want to buy products from a company infamously known to cancel products left and right?
bushbaba 4y ago
Google has tried at least since 2002. So it's been 20 years. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Search_Appliance https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Search_Appliance The Google Search Appliance was a respectable business in of itself. They deprecated it as it wasn't large enough for "Google". It would have been in the ranks of peer unicorn startups given the revenue prior to being killed off.
- giobox 4y ago
  It was also a business for which the writing was very clearly on the wall. How many companies are left that still sell a SaaS/PaaS that requires you to install bespoke on-prem server hardware? I'm guessing its a much smaller list than it was 2002. For crawling/indexing, I can't even imagine convincing IT we need a dedicated appliance today! For the problem GSA solved, its just not needed anymore and subsumed by other google products/services that don't need me to install a rack-device like: https://workspace.google.com/products/cloud-search/ https://workspace.google.com/products/cloud-search/ As someone else has pointed out, GSuite has seen success in the enterprise space, so their enterprise efforts aren't a total write-off. With so many students now on GSuite at their school or colleges and a generation effectively raised on Google Docs... I certainly wouldn't bet against it today.
  - chris11 4y ago
    I can imagine on prem hw being a benefit if a company didn't want a 3rd party to index material. But yeah, I wouldn't want to manage an on-prem setup unless it was necessary.
Melatonic 4y ago
GSuite (now Google Workspace) is actually chugging along nicely and continuously improved. I bet it becomes one of their reliable long term products.
fomine3 4y ago
I also see decent Google Workspace resellers.

arebop 4y ago

1/3 of Microsoft's revenues and operating income come from their cloud business, which has done much better than Google's.

colinmhayes 4y ago
Azure has largely been propelled by microsoft's strong business relationships. I think it's likely that google sees gsuite and GCP as synergies given how successful msft has been at parlaying their office contracts into azure signups.
- scarface74 4y ago
  You assume that Google has any competencies in dealing with the enterprise or anything that requires high-touch. And then they hired an Oracle veteran to head GCP. What could possibly go wrong? https://www.crn.com/news/cloud/google-cloud-ceo-thomas-kurian-makes-his-move https://www.crn.com/news/cloud/google-cloud-ceo-thomas-kuria...
  - colinmhayes 4y ago
    Oracle is probably the most competent enterprise software sales organization other than microsoft, seems like that's a pretty reasonable decision if they focus on building out the sales team. And Google probably realizes enterprise sales is a huge problem for them which is why they're investing in these products to make it easier to grow the organization. Selling to enterprises is something Google needs to get good at if they want to grow long term, having strong products to sell helps attract talent and close sales which gives their team experience.
    - scarface74 4y ago
      I have never in 25 years - most of that in the enterprise - has dealt with Oracle enterprise sales and came out feeling good about it.
      - 4y ago