Security is the top reason most businesses give for not
considering
cloud-based software applications, but Google may have quietly
changed all that.
With little fanfare, the company has released a software
development tool that challenges the biggest objection to
cloud-based applications.
Google's Secure Data Connector (SDC) software allows businesses
to use cloud-based
Google Apps to access data behind the company firewall for the
first time.
"Previously [this was] a difficult issue to tackle," according
to Google engineering manager Brandon Nutter in a
company blog.
The SDC is free standards-based software that creates an
encrypted link between Google Apps and company data that can now
remain behind the firewall.
Oracle has led the way in creating connections for Google Apps
to its Siebel CRM software, but any third-party integrators can use
the SDC.
"SDC provides the foundations for a serious alternative to paid
software applications," says Ray Wang, analyst at Forrester
Research.
IT services company Capgemini expects more organisations to
consider Google Apps now that it is easier and cheaper to make
secure connections to backend systems.
"SDC is important because organisations want to integrate
business systems simply and securely," says Andrew Gough, cloud
offer development manager at Capgemini.
Big businesses are choosing cloud-based applications to move
away from monolithic systems to a more loosely coupled IT, and SDC
will make that easier, he says.
Gough says SDC is unlikely to prompt big business to migrate to
Google Apps en masse, but with each application or strategy
refresh, there will be one more option on the table.
Oracle's support for Google's SDC will also give businesses
confidence in Google's infrastructure and encryption and
user-authentication processes.
SDC removes one of the biggest barriers to cloud-based
applications for many organisations already interested in the
benefits of the software-as-a-service model.
Some 24% of organisations in North America and Europe are
considering software-as-a-service, while 21% are piloting,
deploying or upgrading implementations, according to a survey by
Forrester Research.
Wang says SDC makes it more likely for enterprise to adopt
Google Apps and potentially other services.
SDC, says Gough, will enable organisations to do what they want
without barriers and that will see Google Apps becoming a lot more
mainstream.
"At present only around 5% of enterprises are using cloud-based
applications, but within five years that will have increased to 20%
or even 30%," says Gough.
Given the potential of Google's SDC, its introduction could
spark a quiet revolution that will displace traditional software
business models in the next few years.