VentureBeat, the host of CloudBeat 2011, has announced that executives of Netflix, Zynga, Best Buy and Google will share cloud case studies at tomorrow's CloudBeat 2011 conference.  These case studies will discuss  real-world examples of how the cloud has impacted and changed the way their companies do business, including exclusive industry insights on the importance of cloud. 

Here's a useful infographic that covers how to the most out of Google. You can find the original graphic at HackCollege.

Google this week unveiled its Chrome Web Store, which aims to do for the Web what Apple's App Store did for mobile devices: It provides a place to explore and "install" Web-based applications.

The launch was announced alongside a new netbook running Chrome OS, Google's browser-centric operating system. And the Web Store is part of Chrome, Google's super-fast Web browser. Except that many Chrome apps can run in other browsers, since they're actually just websites. Oh, and don't mistake apps for "extensions," which are add-ons for the Chrome browser.

Confused yet?

 

 Google today unveiled its long-rumored entry into the e-book sales world, not called Google Editions, as was previously speculated, but a more anonymous-sounding Google eBooks. The basic idea is to provide an entirely web-based e-book platform accessible from any device with a browser. The business model they’ve opted for is slightly less centralized than the competition, but not quite the distributed seller network I envisioned last week.

My wool-gathering regarding the decentralization of the e-book store model are all in that post, so we’ll just focus on the particulars of eBooks service for now.

In the 1980s, Amit Singh and Nikesh Arora, then classmates in Delhi's Air Force School at Subroto Park, often used to team up to beat schoolmates at basketball. Now, the duo have teamed up again at the Google office in Mountain View to beat the likes of Microsoft at the game of software. While Arora is president of the search giant’s global sales operations and business development, Singh is vice-president , international sales and operations for Google Enterprise. The company on Thursday previewed its yet to be launched 'Cloud Connect' , a tool which has the potential to allow users bypass MS Office, and directly save multiple versions of Word or Excel files on the cloud, in a collaborative manner. On an India visit, Amit Singh talks to ET on Google's cloud strategy and his take on whether consumers will buy software as a product in future. Excerpts:

 

What's Google's long term strategy behind launching Cloud Connect?

We believe that Office software users don't need to buy so many copies of Microsoft Office. They can directly collaborate and work on the cloud via Google Docs. Our Cloud Connect on Google Docs will allow Gmail users to download the application from web, and install it inside Microsoft Office as a link. Whenever, a user saves a copy inside MS Word, Powerpoint or Excel, it automatically gets updated on the cloud. Prior saved versions are also available at all locations in the world where the document is open. Last year, when the Icelandic Volcano erupted, hundreds of Googlers were stranded across the world. We sent them a message on Gmail, to open a Google Docs spreadsheet, and input their name location and travel plans. It worked perfectly well, and people were safely taken out of their locations. More and more people will start to use software as a service, rather than buy it as a product. We are testing Google Cloud Connect now and will launch it soon. It will be a free to download product.

 

Is Google afraid of Facebook now that the world's largest social networking giant is entering into email services?

Facebook has done a great job of social networking. But not many serious business users may like to use a social networking application for enterprise email use. Anyways, Mark (Zuckerberg) has himself said that Facebook messages are not email. It's not a 'Gmail killer' . Most people in India will continue to use Gmail.

 

How are Google’s Enterprise and Commerce search doing? What is Google Enterprise's strategy for India?

Google's three enterprise offerings include Apps, Enterprise Search and Geo services. We have almost 30 million users globally of Google Enterprise offerings. Of these almost one million users in India already use Google Enterprise services, within just few months of their launch. We have had a talk with some of the largest Indian retailers to incorporate our search to increase their sales. In India, we have about 300 engineers working on Google enterprise applications. We will double our India headcount to 600 and user base to 2 million in next 12 months. With Gmail, Google Docs, Search, Calendar, Sites, Voice and Video Chat apps for enterprises, combined with Chrome and Android operating systems we expect to grow exponentially.

 

SOURCE: Economic Times

Google has announced a free software plugin for Microsoft Office that will tie your Google Docs account to Microsoft Office. This gives you access to the power of the cloud while letting you stick with the software you’re used to. The plugin is called Cloud Connect and goes into live preview (sign-up) for Apps for Business customers today. Everyone else should get it soon.

Editing a document in Word? It’ll automatically sync to your Google Docs account each time you hit ‘Save’. Want to share a preview of your document without worrying about what file format your coworkers can open? Just send them a link to the Google Docs file. The plugin supports Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and Excel, and it’s a big deal for Google’s strategy with Docs.

You may recall that the latest versions of Microsoft Office do embrace the cloud, but that’s only for those on the cutting edge of Office products. For everyone else, Google’s Cloud Connect provides a practical solution as it supports Office 2003, 2007, and 2010. It’s also simpler as there is no SharePoint configuration required. Google also supports Excel, which Microsoft does not yet.

On Thursday at the SpringOne 2GX developer conference, VMware announced with Google the general availability of the first in a series of technology collaborations to make enterprise software developers more efficient at building, deploying and managing applications within any cloud environment on any device. The collaborative projects that will be available in the next two weeks include Spring Roo and Google Web Toolkit; Spring Insight and Google Speed Tracer; and SpringSource Tool.

"Together, Google and VMware enable enterprises to develop and deploy rich Spring Java applications across multiple clouds and devices," said Rod Johnson, SVP, application platform division at VMware. "Today we have reached an important milestone where these modern applications can run smoothly within the firewalls of a company's production datacentre or in a trusted provider's cloud environment."

The general availability of these projects represents the first in a series of technology collaborations to enhance cloud portability across multiple clouds and devices. The next collaboration projects will focus on even broader mobile application support and accessing data in the cloud, as demonstrated today by the ability to deploy a SQL-based Spring application on Google App Engine for Business.

"Developers are looking for faster ways to build and run great web applications, and businesses want platforms that are open and flexible," said Vic Gundotra, Google vice president of developer platforms. "By making deployments of Spring Java applications on Google App Engine using Google Web Toolkit generally available, developers can deploy Java applications in production environments of their choice while leveraging rich web front-end across multiple devices."

Google may be famous for making the search experience online ultimately convenient, subsequently defining how users find their way inside the labyrinthine maze of the World Wide Web; its recent forays into providing Web applications that work, however, is making it the benchmark for future providers of the next-generation computing technology known to many as the cloud.

Cloud computing, according to Joen van Driel, country manager of Google Southeast Asia, is a host of applications using a shared infrastructure delivered via the Web browser. “We are, [in a way], providing whole infrastructures to host critical applications,” van Driel said of Google’s cloud offerings, during his keynote speech at this year’s Computerworld Philippines’ CIO Forum focusing on cloud computing.

Google is currently opening its doors to enterprises through its subsidiary, Google Enterprise, which seeks to bring the Google experience inside office walls. To date, van Driel said Google Enterprise offers four key products to enterprises: Google Search, which brings “the same experience as Google.com but within [the company's] own secure environment,” the Google executive explained; Geolocation tools, such as Google Maps, where the company sells the technology to organizations so they can put various layers over their maps; Postini, a hosted messaging security service; and Google Apps, from which Gmail, Google Calendar, and Google Docs, among others, can be deployed.

Google is working on a deal with major Hollywood studios that will allow it to distribute pay-per-view video through YouTube.

If negotiations succeed, YouTube could begin showing top-tier streaming content on demand before the end of the year, according to a report in The Financial Times.

Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The consumation of such a deal would add significant value to Google TV, the company's effort to integrate the Web and television on the Android-based Google TV platform. The first Google TV device, a Sony TV, is scheduled to ship this fall.

This week we discuss Gmail's new phone feature (watch out Skype!) and a recent study by IBM's X-force on the greatest threat to cloud adoption. 

 

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