Google edges further into enterprise IT

There has been a lot of talk this year about the blurring line between consumer and enterprise technologies. It's getting tougher for companies to dissuade employees from using their smartphones at work or prevent them from accessing social media via the corporate network. Vendors seem to be encouraging the trend by adding work-related functions to consumer-oriented devices and services. 

We're beginning to see more ways that employees can put consumer technologies to serious use in boosting the corporate bottom line, however. Google, the quintessential consumer tech provider, noted in its blog this past week that it just added some impressive enterprises to the roster of Google Apps users, including KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, Sports Basement and National Geographic. Consumer tech mavens may be starting to give enterprise vendors a serious run for their money.

Google also launched the Google Apps Marketplace, which could prove to be the camel's nose under the Salesforce.com tent. In a blog post Friday, Google noted that the Apps Marketplace aims to helps businesses identify trustworthy providers migrating technologies to the cloud. If you've heard something like that before, you're probably familiar with Salesforce.com's AppExchange. If nothing else, serious forays into the enterprise market by companies that made their name in consumer technologies may push enterprise vendors to work a little harder.

For an interesting perspective on the challenge that the Google Apps Marketplace presents to AppExchange, take a look at an analysis by Chris Boulton at eWeek. Like AppExchange, Google Apps Marketplace offers billing, accounting and project management apps. The companies aren't saying whether the obvious competition is straining their relationship, but Boulton questions whether we're witnessing the first step in a march toward a major battle among cloud computing platforms.

For more:
- see Google's post about Google Apps Marketplace
- see Chris Boulton's analysis at eWeek

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