Google Chrome OS – What’s Next?

Today, Google has finally shared its plans to develop and introduce Google Chrome Operating System (OS). Taking into account that over 30-million people already familiar with Google Chrome browser, I should note that Google Chrome OS is entirely different project even though in the end, the new open-source operating system will include Chrome browser.

While the idea of developing Web OS is not new, Google most certainly has the capacity and the expertise to make it a reality and finally compete with and beat Microsoft. According to the Official Google Blog the all new Google Chrome OS will be available to the public in the second half of 2010.

“Google Chrome OS is an open source, lightweight operating system that will initially be targeted at netbooks. Later this year we will open-source its code, and netbooks running Google Chrome OS will be available for consumers in the second half of 2010. Because we’re already talking to partners about the project, and we’ll soon be working with the open source community, we wanted to share our vision now so everyone understands what we are trying to achieve.

Speed, simplicity and security are the key aspects of Google Chrome OS. We’re designing the OS to be fast and lightweight, to start up and get you onto the web in a few seconds. The user interface is minimal to stay out of your way, and most of the user experience takes place on the web. And as we did for the Google Chrome browser, we are going back to the basics and completely redesigning the underlying security architecture of the OS so that users don’t have to deal with viruses, malware and security updates. It should just work.

Google Chrome OS will run on both x86 as well as ARM chips and we are working with multiple OEMs to bring a number of netbooks to market next year. The software architecture is simple — Google Chrome running within a new windowing system on top of a Linux kernel. For application developers, the web is the platform. All web-based applications will automatically work and new applications can be written using your favorite web technologies. And of course, these apps will run not only on Google Chrome OS, but on any standards-based browser on Windows, Mac and Linux thereby giving developers the largest user base of any platform.“ Read full story.

So, what’s in it for you and your business? While Software as a Service (SaaS), and Cloud Computing are gaining momentum becoming mainstream, not that far down the road web OS will be all you’ll ever need to run your business. Consider this; at present, many small and medium businesses have legitimate concerns around business continuity and disaster recovery planning to ensure that the business survives during natural disasters, pandemics etc.

Business owners are concerned because majority of businesses are tied to a particular geographical location, i.e. “the office” Hypothetically speaking, if you were to move all the existing business application to the “Cloud”, you won’t need a full-blown Windows operating system to successfully operate your business or even for your home computer. You won’t even need to keep Windows disk images or own any Windows servers simply because Google Chrome OS might run directly off a memory stick or your computer connected to the Internet will simply boot into the web OS.

The idea I have been toying with for the past 4-5 years is to develop an operating system that is small enough to fit on the smallest available thumb-drive, and has a Firefox browser (remember, Google Chrome wasn’t available 5-years ago). One of the key reasons it never materialized is that even with the web OS, you still need an always on mobile broad-band connection and some sort of hardware that’s truly portable. As a logical continuation of events, Google introduced Google Apps, and then Google Chrome. Today, I can say with 100% certainty that the time for the web OS is NOW!

However, considering wide adoption of mobile computers, specifically netbooks, it’s ridiculous in this day and age to be tied down by a specific OS simply because all you really need to access and manipulate your information is a simple web browser.

For example, my company is powered by Google Apps Premier, and personally, I hardly use any other features of the pre-installed OS other than Google Chrome browser. In all honesty, at times I do use Internet Explorer and/or Firefox but only when I have to. I even tried Safari on the PC, and while it’s a great browser for MAC platform, it does not even compare to Chrome and Firefox on PC. But that’s another story.

Don’t get me wrong, I do listen to music, actively participate in social networks, watch movies, edit photos, play games etc. But all these activities are done online.

There are companies and individuals that over the years have developed Linux-based operating systems that can be named true web OSs today. There are even virtual appliances that allow you to safely the web using Firefox browser. How Google Chrome OS will distinguish itself, time will tell.

We look forward to reviewing Chrome OS and sharing the experience with our dear readers and customers. For further information, or to subscribe to our newsletter, please contact us.

Until next time,

Steve E. Driz

Good Bye Beta – Welcome Google Apps for Enterprise

Just in. According to the Official Google Enterprise Blog, beta label came off Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Docs and Google Talk. With this move, Google sets new standard and shows the business that it’s cloud offering is mature enough for the Enterprise beyond reasonable doubt.

“Google Apps has always been a compelling offering for small and medium sized companies, and they’ve accounted for much of our growth to 1.75 million businesses. Large enterprises can also get great results with Apps, as Fairchild Semiconductor and the dozens of other big companies that have Gone Google have discovered. Still, we appreciate that there have been some boulders along the road to adoption for the largest businesses in the world.
Since the beginning of the year, we’ve focused on making it as easy as possible for those large enterprises to switch to Google, and offline access, BlackBerry and Microsoft Outlook support, and enterprise contact management were the dynamite that cleared the road to Apps.

Today we’re paving the road. We’re taking the beta label off of Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Docs and Google Talk to remove any doubt that Apps is a mature product suite.

We’re also launching a tool that will be particularly useful to administrative support staff to screen and send email on behalf of others – a feature called email delegation. And to help customers comply with regulations that may exist specific to their industry, we’re adding email retention so that IT administrators can set up policies to determine when email will be purged. Both retention and delegation are in testing with customers, and will start rolling out to all Premier edition domains over the next weeks.”

New email and admin features are a big step forward considering that Gmail is delivered as a web-client. Read full story.

As always, over the next several weeks our team will test new fucntionality, and will share its findings with our valued readers.

Until next time,

Steve E. Driz

75 TwittIdeas for SMEs – Ideas 21-30

Twittideas brought to you by Luis Viadel.

Just is case and you’ve missed Top-20 Twittideas for SMEs, you can find it here.

21. Be a great apprentice!
22. Write down your dream. That’s your vision!!
23. Design must be an obsession
24. Focus on intangibles!
25. Be accessible! Hyperconnected!
26. Go the extra mile!
27. At what things are you different? Be professional!!
28. Use the BPO (Business Process Outsourcing)
29. Cut down costs, cut down costs, cut down costs, cut d……
30. What does your company do? Write your mission now!

Stay tuned for more Twittideas…

The Driz Group

75 TwittIdeas for SMEs – Simple but Powerful Twitter Ideas for Small and Medium Enteprises

As promised, today we are starting a series of twittideas brought to you by our good friend and colleague from Spain Mr. Luis Viadel. Below are Top-20 twittideas for Small and Medium Enterprises. We will be posting new twittideas on a weekly basis.

Additional information (in Spanish) can be found at http://www.twitterpyme.com, and/or you can connect with Luis on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LuisViadel.

Enjoy!

75 TwittIdeas for SMEs – Top-20

By Luis Viadel

1. Are you passionate about your business? If not, do something else!!
2. Don’t look for an excuse! Do it now!
3. Turn cost centers into revenue centers.
4. Make sure the appropriate people are in the appropriate positions!
5. Listen to your customers.
6. If you don’t know it, admit it!
7. Take the Web! Enjoy the Web! ALL lives on the Web!
8. Innovate! Think about incredible things!
9. We live in the women’s century, hire women!!
10. Deploy, implement, measure your strategy!
11. Design your business processes again and optimize them.
12. Turn your business into a place where everyone wants to work.
13. Listen to your employees.
14. Team up with your customer and work for his success.
15. Your company’s guiding principles are your personal values and your team’s values.
16. Give excellent service. You have to be an unforgettable experience!
17. You have to be warm in approval and generous in your compliments.
18. Information should flow freely within the company!
19. If your responsibilities exceed your capacity, you should delegate, right?
20. Measure, measure, measure. Your decisions depend on the measurement.

Stay tuned,

The Driz Group

Daily Poll

Making Green IT a Reality

Is “green IT” just a buzzword, or is it something that can truly help the environment and your business? There are many opinions ranging from “who cares” to “the end is near.”

In reality, the benefits of “green IT” initiatives are tangible since as an outcome we reduce overall energy consumption.  Examples include using old CRT monitors vs. LCDs, consolidating server rooms saving space and reducing cooling requirements, and finally, recycling old technology. To clarify, when I say recycling, I mean reusing a device for another purpose including upgrading older or obsolete technology.

Thanks to Jason, Manager of IT, and his creative solutions, one of my clients – a large non-profit agency will now save significant dollars while taking advantage of the best in breed technology. The solution is truly simple; as a charity, the organization received a kind donation of used laptop computers. Coupled with the existing stock of recently upgraded laptops, the number of devices was sufficient to meet Cisco PIX replacement project requirements.

In 2001, the organization implemented high-speed lines across 75 office locations. For that purpose, the company purchased 75 Cisco PIX devices. I should note that over the years, Cisco gear performed very well and did not require excessive maintenance. However, as time went by, several devices simply failed due to age. In the end, due to the higher risk of failure as well as feature limitations, a decision was made to upgrade the firewalls. Considering the economic downturn and the fact that every dollar counts when it comes to non-profit organizations, Jason began re-configuring the existing laptops utilizing widely used and adopted open-source security software.

Having thoroughly tested the system in multiple sites, the organizational IT has moved into a full deployment mode. So what about the old Cisco firewalls? They are going back to Cisco for recycling.

If you would like to receive additional details, please contact us.

Until next time.

Steve E. Driz

True business value of Twitter

Friends,

Let’s face it, Twitter is hot. Similar to ICQ that took the online World by storm in the 90s, Twitter is making its rounds growing even more rapidly than any communication technology to ever enter the market. According to various news sources, one of the key issues Twitter is faced with is how to make it a commercial success without alienating its fans. Would it be as easy as setting up a structure whereby businesses will pay Twitter for reaching out to its customer base? This way, Twitter will remain free for all except for commercial entities.

In reality, monetization is the biggest issue majority of social networking and new media site are faced with. After all, we like free services specifically when we use it for pleasure, not business. While some debate that the benefits of Twitter are intangible, lately, there has been proof that by using Twitter you can increase your revenues and grow your business.

For example, according to Clare Baldwin of Reuters, Dell Computers raked in more than $3 million from Twitter followers who clicked through its posts to its Web sites to make purchases. Incredible considering that it does not take too much time or effort to be an active on Twitter.

For someone who believes is human interaction that we call networking, Twitter can be an invaluable tool for expending both personal and professional networks. In order to demonstrate the intangible value of Twitter, over the next several weeks, we will be posting 75 twittideas brought to you by Mr. Luis Viadel. Luis is a good friend whom I met on Twitter, and he is passionate about business strategy, communication and technology in the business.

Stay tuned,

Steve E. Driz

To Bing or not to Bing, or Microsoft Bing vs. Google

Friends,

Over the past several weeks, people around the globe have been testing and reviewing Bing – new search engine recently introduced by Microsoft. It seems that Microsoft had killed Live.com overnight replacing it with its new baby. If you navigate to Live.com, and will automatically re-direct to Bing.com. We truly hope that the new Bing search engine will grow and mature over the next several years, unless of course it is replaced by yet another search engine project.

While we are still in the processes of testing and reviewing Microsoft’s new search engine, we have come across some peculiar differences between Bing and Google as it pertains to search results relevancy.

Since we always learn by experimenting with search engine optimization, the example below includes one of our own blog entries entitled Google Apps vs. Microsoft BPOS – Comparative Analysis. For the key-phrase, “Microsoft BPOS”, on Google, as of June 09, 2009 the above blog entry is number seven in the organic search results – http://www.google.ca/search?client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&channel=s&hl=en&q=microsoft+bpos&meta=&btnG=Google+Search

Oddly enough, the same page is nowhere to be found when searching on Bing using the same key-phrase. To us, it simply means that Bing simply does not find our blog entry relevant. You be the judge of that.

In our view, the purpose of Internet search engines is to provide us with the most relevant results. Thus far, Google has been doing an amazing job constantly adding new features and functionality to its search engine and beyond. As for Bing, while it has great presentation and I must say very cool backgrounds, it’s most definitely lacks search results relevance. Should we consider it another failure from Microsoft? Only time will tell.

Until next time,

The Driz Group

Thanks for your patronage!

Over the past several weeks we have received overwhelming response and a large number of requests concerning Google Apps Premium vs. Microsoft BPOS blog post. We would like to thank all our valued customers, readers and friends for their ongoing patronage.

We are working closely with our business partners to bring you the most comprehensive tools that will support your decisions when it comes to selection of SaaS and Cloud computing vendors.

Our team is always ready to help your business. Please contact us for further information, and we will strive to respond within 2 business hours.

Stay tuned…
The Driz Group

Swine Flu Pandemic – IT to the Rescue

Friends,

While reading the news and watching TV this morning, I have come across the term “swine flu” at least 50 times. I am not going to try and downplay the threat level, however; the last thing we need is panic. Why? Because when we panic it affects our ability to think and make decisions. One of the best examples is the outbreak of SARS in Ontario in 2003. At that time, yours truly was one of the few members of the IT community to serve on the pandemic task-force, and I had a privilege of working side by side with the Tsar of the Toronto EMS.

Not surprisingly, at that time the public was in panic. Doctors refused to perform scheduled surgeries. Emergency crews struggled to keep in together. Major hospitals within the GTA could not perform their duties due overwhelming admission rates.

Aside from the healthcare sector, many businesses were affected as well and, in 2004, the majority of medium to large enterprises began talking about pandemic planning and readiness. Business continuity and pandemic planning (not to be confused with disaster recovery) are a must for any business, unless of course, because of the nature of your business, you can afford to be down for prolonged periods of time.

Pandemic readiness planning is a complex process with many unknowns. Our main goal is to make this process as simple and as transparent as possible for our clients, and our dear readers.

What is pandemic planning? In simple terms, pandemic planning ensures that your business will remain functional in the event of a major outbreak of an infectious decease such as influenza, and in this case swine flu. How might such an outbreak affect your business? For example, in the event of a swine flu outbreak, as a precautionary measure, you may want to suggest keeping your staff from traveling. They may need to work from home, if possible, for a period of time. By implementing such measures, we will ensure that fewer people are in contact and therefore reduce the possibility of infection.

Of course you have to develop key processes ahead of time. You have to identify key staff as your pandemic response team, develop a communications strategy, and make sure that the chain of command is clearly identified. The above steps are not unlike those included as a part of a disaster recovery planning.

As you can imagine, IT plays a key role in the planning and execution of clearly defined pandemic response processes. For example, love it or hate it, email is still one of the key communications technologies alongside your traditional phone. More often than not, the availability of both systems is the responsibility of the IT department.

It does not matter which email system you use as long as it can be accessed remotely using a standard Internet connection. As far as your phones are concerned, today many organizations are moving from traditional PBX to Voice over IP enabled systems. One of the key reasons for migration is that VoIP systems are less expensive, include myriad features, and are easy to maintain compared to the traditional PBX. In addition, VoIP PBXs traditionally have a smaller footprint. Long story short, VoIP systems can be accessed remotely as needed without any special equipment using free soft-phone software that can be installed and configured on virtually any personal computer in minutes.

As a matter of fact, recently we have come across entry-level VoIP systems that cost under $1,000, and can accommodate up to 15 users.

Now that you have solved key communications issues, it is time to take a realistic look at your key infrastructure that houses your data. Can your employees access it from a remote location without any special equipment or tools? If the answer is “yes,” you have almost nothing to worry about, and can consider yourself pandemic ready.

As always, we look forward to receiving your questions and comments.

Until next time,

Steve E. Driz

 

New Capabilities of Microsoft BPOS

Today, Microsoft has announced the new capabilities of its Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS) by sending an email to existing BPOS customers. The new capabilities include what Microsoft calls “IM & Presence Awareness,” and includes Microsoft Office Communications Online or simply web-based instant messaging that can be restricted for use within your organization.  According to the Microsoft Online Services (MOS) website, the service can be purchased separately from BPOS, starting at $2.50 per user, per month. The only caveat according to Microsoft is that in order to use it, you must purchase and install Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 R2. When implemented, users may use the service directly over the Internet, or through either RAS or VPN connection.

As always, Microsoft includes a datasheet on the MOS website that includes the solution highlights as well as the most noteworthy features and limitations. According to the source, Microsoft Office Communications Online integrates with Microsoft Office 2007 and SharePoint sites.

One of the key security features is that all IM text is automatically encrypted, meaning that the communication channel is secure. Other security features include enhanced URL filtering and file filter controls that will scan the files distributed through the IM.

As far as limitations are concerned, according to the datasheet, each user can have up to 250 contacts. In our view, this is more than enough, and if you need more contacts for your day-to-day IM activities, you must seek professional help.

Integration with the in-house Active Directory and the Microsoft managed Active Directory is achieved through use of the Directory Synchronization Tool. Another neat feature is that, similar to other services, Microsoft Office Communications Online can be accessed using the same sign-in tool.

Over the next couple week, we intend to test the solution and provide our valued readers with the additional information.

You can download complete datasheets for the Microsoft Office Communications Online directly from the source:

·         Standard (minimum 5 seats)

·         Dedicated (minimum 5000 seats)

 

Until next time,

The Driz Group