Bored by Forms — Themes Can Help

/in

Google Forms now include the ability to add themes with background images and color selections.

Learn more here …

Manage Permissions by Sheet in Google Spreadsheets

/in

Google has enhanced Google Spreadsheets, allowing you to manage who may edit sheets within a workbook.

Learn More …

Google Acquisition Improves the Image of Google Docs

/in

In 2007, Google purchased a startup called Tonic Systems. The technology from this startup provides the basis image features in Google Docs.

The Insert Drawing feature lets you add drawings, using lines, curves, freehand squiggles, and shapes, directly into your Google Docs.

Click here to learn more about this cool feature.

From the Continuous Improvement Files …

/in

Over the past several weeks, Google has made a set of minor (but very helpful) changes to Google Apps:

  • Arial and Times New Roman fonts are now available in the text editor in Google Docs for users who have these fonts locally installed on their computers
  • In Gmail, you can now view .ppt and .tiff files online, directly in your browser, without a Flash plugin. The viewer can also zoom in and out, select text to copy and paste, and ‘print’ the presentation to a PDF document
  • Speaker notes are included when uploading a PowerPoint presentation into Google Docs

Of Swine and Men …

/in

The reaction to the Swine Flu may be worse than the flu itself. Our sister firm, Horizon Information Group, has some sound advice on the topic here.

Cloud Computing Reaches Mainstream Media

/in

Cloud Computing and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) is gaining coverage in mainstream, non-tech media, such as USA Today. This is an indication of broader acceptance in the market.

A Real Example of Calendar Integration

/in

Worcester Fitness recently launched their new website. In addition to a great new look and feel, the site boasts new calendars. The daily class list on the home page and the multiple class schedules are both powered by Google Apps Premier Edition.

Using APIs and the calendar publication wizard, the web developers at Cold Spring Design deliver class schedules and information in an attractive, easy to use format for site visitors. At they same time, Worcester Fitness staff can add and modify scheduling information in real time.

The ability to create multiple “event” calendars and link calendar information to web sites, intranets, and online documents is a free feature for Google Apps Premier Edition.

Microsoft Moving Towards a Real Office Cloud? Maybe.

/in

As reported in IT World, Microsoft announced that its next generation MS Office suite (Office 14) will include Office Web Applications, a suite including lightweight versions of Word, Excel, and Powerpoint.

Signaling a potentially major shift in Microsoft’s view of SaaS, the service will run in Firefox and Safari, as well as Internet Explorer, giving Microsoft office a means to run on Linux servers.

From the article and the announcement, it is still unclear if:

  • Windows users will be able to run Office Web Applications in Firefox, or only IE
  • If the service will require locally installed software
  • If the service will require use of Office Live Workspace

While reports have the new service available in Beta later this year, the service will not launch until the release of Office 14 (which has not been announced).

Microsoft is clearly responding to threats from Google Apps, Zoho, and OpenOffice. Will Microsoft be able to shed many of its current licensing, pricing, and channel policies to effectively compete in an aggressive marketplace?

Is 99.9% Up-Time Good Enough?

/in

Google’s commitment to Google Apps Premier Edition availability is 99.9%. Is this enough?

Earlier this week, I posted an entry that compared 99.9% availability of a 7x24x365 system with higher availability claims for solutions that require downtime for scheduled maintenance.

Back in October 2008, Google turned to research conducted by Radicati Group, an independent industry analysis firm. The results were enlightening and resulted in Google extending the 99.9% guarantee for Gmail to all of applications within Google Apps Premier Edition.

Understanding SaaS Availability Claims

/in

As small and mid-size businesses (SMBs) evaluate cloud computing solutions, vendors often tout availability, or up-time, commitments. Understanding the metric, and how to compare vendor claims, is critical when selecting a solution.

Availability is generally expressed as a percentage — 99.9%, 99.99%, and so on. With 8760 hours in each year, 99.9% availability equates to 8.75 hours (0.1%) downtime each year, or an average of 45 minutes per month. Similarly, 99.99% availability equates to 45 minutes of downtime each year, or about 5 minutes per month.

Simple yes, but the devil is in the details. Most vendors caveat availability commitments by excluding schedule maintenance windows. For some vendors, this means regularly scheduled windows; for others this means any non-emergency maintenance activities with advanced notice.

When comparing availability claims, you need to account how availability is calculated.

For example, Google Apps has no scheduled maintenance windows. The Google cloud is designed to allow maintenance and updates without impacting user access to applications and data. Google’s 99.9% availability commitment means less than 8.75 total hours of downtime each year. In comparison, Company X running MS Exchange 2003 recently claimed availability of 99.99% as they had no unscheduled downtime in over a year. Looking more closely, they shutdown their email servers for about an hour each week to apply Microsoft security patches, install software updates, and run deep malware scans on the server.

Company X has total downtime of 52 hours per year. In a fair comparison, user availability is only 99.4%.

One of the advantages of Software-as-a-Service solutions, like Google Apps, is that SaaS solutions are design to provide better availability while reducing system administration and support costs. For Company X, moving to Google Apps would reduce the amount of time spent maintaining and supporting their email service — saving money and letting their IT staff focus on activities with greater benefit to the business.