Here are a few audio snippets from a Q and A session with the president of Google’s Enterprise division, Dave Girouard. The session took place on August 5th at the Pacific Crest Technology Leadership Forum in Vail, Colorado.
Girouard talks about Cloud Computing, Google’s new App Engine, the Google Apps productivity suite, competition versus partnerships, and how Google faces the challenges of protecting its users’ privacy and security.
Q: How does Google define Cloud Computing?
Audio Answer — MP3 File[audio:http://old.crunchgear.com/audio/google01.mp3]
Q: Why do you think Gmail is getting more adoption than the other Google Apps products? How do you define the competition for Gmail?
Audio Answer — MP3 File[audio:http://old.crunchgear.com/audio/google02.mp3]
Q: Is there a product that’s running a close second to Gmail?
Audio Answer — MP3 File[audio:http://old.crunchgear.com/audio/google03.mp3]
Q: How do you address the three key barriers to entry when it comes to Cloud Computing — Concerns over data security, service and support issues, and the ability to customize apps that are in the cloud?
Audio Answer — MP3 File[audio:http://old.crunchgear.com/audio/google04.mp3]
Q: What was the rationale behind the partnership with Salesforce.com?
Audio Answer — MP3 File[audio:http://old.crunchgear.com/audio/google05.mp3]
Q: What is the revenue model for your applications besides Gmail?
Audio Answer — MP3 File[audio:http://old.crunchgear.com/audio/google06.mp3]
Q: How many people are using Google Apps?
Audio Answer — MP3 File[audio:http://old.crunchgear.com/audio/google07.mp3]
Q: Why use Google App Engine over Amazon Web Services?
Audio Answer — MP3 File[audio:http://old.crunchgear.com/audio/google08.mp3]
Q: Are larger acquisitions part of a strategy for Google Apps?
Girouard talks about last year’s Postini acquisition.
Audio Answer — MP3 File[audio:http://old.crunchgear.com/audio/google09.mp3]
Q: Why is Google Apps still not quite there as far as core functionality is concerned?
Audio Answer — MP3 File[audio:http://old.crunchgear.com/audio/google10.mp3]
Q: What are the stakes that are at risk in moving to this model? Where will the battle be fought?
Audio Answer — MP3 File[audio:http://old.crunchgear.com/audio/google11.mp3]
Q: What does Google make of Microsoft’s claims that Software as a Service isn’t a viable solution and that only software plus services will work?
Audio Answer — MP3 File[audio:http://old.crunchgear.com/audio/google12.mp3]