Google speaks…are you listening?

An anniversary of sorts has come and gone recently…did you catch it? Google turned 10 years old. Just think, in less than three years the company will be a teenager. More remarkably perhaps it surpassed one billion dollars in annual revenue…and with more than 13,000 employees – at this stage. Wow.

The big news over the weekend was the upcoming Google phone, which was announced on Monday as “Android platform.” And so as to not create a slow news day, they also announced some of their initial strategy in Social Networking, called OpenSocial.

Did you notice the timing and common messaging around these seemingly unrelated (at first glance) events? Let’s scratch a bit deeper.

> Both announcements talked about an “open platform”
> Both discussed the power to “connect and collaborate”
> Both are seeking “disruption” of a business model

No news in that except extending the model, right?

Likely the Google phone will mark (perhaps) the imminent shift from proprietary wireless networks to IP-based public networks. Apple did a fine job of straddling this with the iPhone (yes, I got one ). As you know the voice traffic on an iPhone goes out over the AT&T network, while the data uses a “most convenient available” method of EDGE data networks and WiFi.

So let’s connect the dots shall we? Apple has their rev 0.9 iPhone out with the 1.0 (or even 2.0) in the labs and scheduled for release in less than a year (general market belief). Google is revving up their marketing machine, complete with the following quote:

“Today’s announcement is more ambitious than any single ‘Google Phone’ that the press has been speculating about over the past few weeks. Our vision is that the powerful platform we’re unveiling will power thousands of different phone models.” —Eric Schmidt, Google Chairman/CEO, Android Press Release 11/5/07

WiMax is also increasing its global footprint by the minute. And more and more connectivity is free, or really “loss leader” might be the fair way to look at it. But loss leader to what? The model that Google has been (not so quietly) working on for the last 10 years: The ubiquity of INFORMATION – not just the movement of data…hmmmm.

After all, connecting people and providing a service is really the goal at the end of the day isn’t it. Making our lives more “productive, fun, and efficient” (that’s what the marketing fine print says anyway). Something about Web 2.0, right?

So why not loss leader Social Networking as a part of this as well? (No, Steve Ballmer, you can’t cancel payment on that big check MSFT wrote to Facebook). Since we have no real model (outside of the fringe “viral market for commercial purposes” aspect) for Social Networking, we may as well make it “free,” right?

So if you are trying to figure out which stocks to short, and which ones hold….don’t ask me.

And if are wondering about what this has to do with IT in Transition….everything.

Mostly it just affirms what we already know….we are just a transport layer for things to come. Back to work now to translate that notion into long-term differentiated market value.

Think about it — this company didn’t even exist 10 years ago! Now many of us – including some of the tech giants I’m sure – have our Google Alerts set to Google, and watch every bit of news from the “plex.” Talk about disruptive!

Here are a couple of other blogs on this issue:

David Berlind at ZDNet
Ben Worthen of WSJ
Rob Beschizza of Wired

Wyatt.

Another IT in Transition Indicator: Software as a Service (SaaS)

Have you been following the morphing of Salesforce.com (SF.com)? Fascinating really. They were one of the first to really drive a mainstream and highly profitable Application as a Service (ASP) …why is this not AaaS…oh, never mind…I digress.

Well now SF.com is spreading their wings, including full page ads in WSJ talking about Force.com. See more at http://www.salesforce.com/platform.

We are now seeing all kinds of things being (potentially) delivered “as a service.” Google is also heading this way, and even the traditional “install-based” ISV’s are beginning to get SaaS-y.

Apple is way on board (perhaps in the lead for a platform vendor) with the very cool .Mac services.

And let’s not forget the very creative use of skills and capacity by Amazon with the Simple Storage Solutions (S3), Elastic Computing Cloud (EC2) and other Amazon Web Services (AWS).

All of these innovations are on the path to further “virtualize” our computing experience. The “grid” is quietly emerging…and it works well. Plus, it’s pretty darned reasonable from a pricing point of view.

It makes sense if you think about it. It’s well aligned to the shift to more powerful hardware platforms (dual, quad and the coming octal core machines). And very well suited to supporting OS agnosticity as virtual memory (VM) moves into mainstream.

So as to not miss the SaaS party, this week SignaCert announced SignaCert Verify. It’s a service designed to support IT controls on an ASP basis to “verify” (clever, ay?) that elements of our customers critical infrastructure can be independently validated, starting with the DMZ.

Wonder if we should label this Trust as a Service (TaaS)?

Software Services “on call” and “on demand” are here… they are coming fast and here to stay and clearly represent another element of IT in transition.

Check ‘em out….and let me know what you think.

Wyatt.

Apple and Transitional IT (i.e better user experience…)

Have you been following Apple’s technical roadmap these days? I know most of us track the new whiz-bang features and amazing marketing that comes out of that company.

You know I was counseled by some Apple folks recently and told “If we get you an audience with Steve Jobs, don’t say a word about Apple being in the “IT business”…and further that “Apple is a consumer products and content company and that technology is all about helping to deliver consumer experience…”  (We will get kicked out if I start talking about “IT”…)

Hmmmmm. Makes good sense. IT, technology and the services built upon them are the means to the end…not the end. The end is sexy and easy to use. The technology is largely transparent to the user experience.

Sort of like a well made German sports car…

As the subject of this blog is really observations of IT in transition, and because I am a closet geek anyway – I must dive a level down and make some technology observations.

I’ll start with a note from Steve Jobs last week. See a copy here: http://blog.zingwat.com/?p=164

Note his comment on code security and “integrity”:

“It will take until February to release an SDK because we’re trying to do two diametrically opposed things at once—provide an advanced and open platform to developers while at the same time protect iPhone users from viruses, malware, privacy attacks, etc. This is no easy task. Some claim that viruses and malware are not a problem on mobile phones—this is simply not true. There have been serious viruses on other mobile phones already, including some that silently spread from phone to phone over the cell network. As our phones become more powerful, these malicious programs will become more dangerous. And since the iPhone is the most advanced phone ever, it will be a highly visible target.”

Also last week Apple made the highly touted announcement of “Leopard” and the mind boggling list of new capabilities and features. See: http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/300.html

Well, one very capable analyst, Carl Howe, wrote an interesting article zeroing in on some common technological similarities between the challenges with these offerings. See:

http://seekingalpha.com/article/50315-apple-s-impressive-platform-security-for-iphone-leopard-development

The two items that Carl picked out and correlated (iPhone to Leopard) are really interesting and relevant to these blog pages. From the article:

Tagging Downloaded Applications
Protect yourself from potential threats. Any application downloaded to your Mac is tagged. Before it runs for the first time, the system asks for your consent — telling you when it was downloaded, what application was used to download it, and, if applicable, what URL it came from.

Signed Applications
Feel safe with your applications. A digital signature on an application verifies its identity and ensures its integrity. All applications shipped with Leopard are signed by Apple, and third-party software developers can also sign their applications.

And Carl goes on to say:

“Those features jumped out at me because the very first Forrester report I wrote in 1996 was about desktop security and the threat of active content. In that report, I wrote that if you want a truly secure platform, you need both app signing and run-time validation to guarantee that you only run trusted code. I further noted that Windows would never become a truly secure platform without these features. The fact that these features are built into Leopard says that even as Macs gain in popularity, Apple has no intent of letting its OS or its iPhone become an easy security target. And these two features are worth the entire cost of upgrade and more to anyone worried about desktop and server security.”

Wow, did you note the “positive platform attestation” comments in his observations? He is saying (I believe) that the device itself is responsible for maintaining the boundaries of what code should be allowed to run on the platform. And that we can “secure a platform” by making sure the trusted code stays trusted, and deal with mobile code asserted to the platform by having some sense of “provenance” – i.e. “where did the code come from, who (which app) requested it, and is it safe to run.”

He finishes the article with “Nice work Apple…”

I concur – great stuff. Not sexy in its own right necessarily. But by building these features into both the architecture AND the third party infrastructure, intrinsic positive platform protection can be more effectively assured.

With this, the stuff just works better. It is more reliable. It is safer…and all leads to a better user experience, and (likely) lower support costs for Apple.

Happier customer, more security transparency based on positive code measurement (signing) and attestation (verification).

Wow. Smart.

Nice work Apple.

And nice work Carl for helping to sort this out.

(Have to run, heading to the Apple store)

Wyatt.