Google CEO Schmidt vs. Microsoft in the cloud
While Google CEO Eric Schmidt celebrates Thanksgiving by unleashing an anti-(Microsoft) technical monopoly rhetorical call to battle in the cloud, as Nick Carr underscores, he has long set in motion an anti-Microsoft tussle in the enterprise go-to-market trenches, as I have been reporting from the ground since I witnessed the Google Apps Enterprise Edition pitch to corporate technology buyers at the NYC Googleplex a week ago.
In "Google Enterprise strategy: ‘Death to the hierarchy’" and “Google battles Microsoft” and “Google: Who needs advertising?,” I report on and analyze how Google is currently pre-selling a fee-for-services online alternative to Microsoft Office to corporate, government and not-for-profit organizations around the world; Below are highlights.
In the company of about 200 technology execs I saw Michael Lock, Director of North American Sales for Google Enterprise, make the Google Apps for Enterprise case.
Lock evangelized the Google cloud over Microsoft Office, declaring “Death to the hierarchy,” soon.
I asked Lock for a timeframe of when Google will succeed in bringing “Death to the hierarchy,” but no specific date for an absolute demise of the "hierarchy" was provided.
The target for the release of Google Apps Enterprise Edition is Q1 2007, I learned from Lock.
As the top sales person for Google in the enterprise, Lock is banking big on a big Google cost advantage of its hosted productivity solutions.
Although pricing for the premium version of Google Apps has not yet been announced, Lock assured that Google intends to aggressively drive down the “price per document” of its enterprise solutions. Lock suggested the days of spending “$300 to $1000 yearly for an email box” are numbered.”
The Enterprise version of Google Apps for Your Domain will include features, integration options, capacity and support offerings 'designed to meet the needs of larger organizations.'