Monitis: Cloud Monitoring Blog

Going head to head with Microsoft, The Wall Street Journal reports that Google is preparing to launch an online store that sells business software integrating with its cloud services. Google will apparently hire third-party software companies to design business software which it will then integrate with and enhance Google Apps.

The Journal quotes unnamed sources as saying this is Google’s plan and that the store, a new and improved version of its Solutions Marketplace, will come online in March 2010. Customers would be allowed to buy Google’s partners’ software on the site, and users will be able to immediately access or use their applications – via the Gmail or Google Docs menus.

What are some of the improvements to Apps that Google’s looking at? Think tinkering that produces enhanced security features, the ability to import contacts, tools to access online files offline. Officially, Google is not talking about this yet: The Journal quoted a Google spokesman as saying that the company is “constantly working with our partners to deliver more solutions to businesses, but we have nothing to announce at this time.”

The new store is seen as part of the company’s business strategy to grow its online software business – and to get customers away from Microsoft programs. After all, Google can’t rely on advertising revenue forever.

But one consequence of this new strategy of relying on outside software developers is that there could be quality issues. I hate to even think of anything negative. But, indeed, concern about storing data online is why many large enterprises are fearful of migrating from internally housed Microsoft applications to cloud-based ones.

So, this could be another reason why it’ll become more important than ever for companies using Google’s suite of software (or Azure or any other cloud platform, for that matter) to employ back-up plans to monitor the reliability of their cloud services and help keep their data available and safe.

Every day we read more about local, national and international governments migrating to the cloud for data storage and applications use. Los Angeles is a well-known example of a city that switched from internally hosted email to the cloud’s Gmail app. Usually, the reasons are to achieve more efficiencies and savings and to give citizens more and faster access to services and information.

But there is another level of discussion around the cloud that government and the private sector is increasingly engaging in. It’s a more strategic, broader view of cloud issues, for example, regarding security standards.

Recently, Microsoft hosted a stimulating roundtable at the Aspen Institute in Washington about cloud computing, and both government representatives and cloud players got a chance to speak their minds – and have dinner, too – according to a Washington Post article.

Microsoft general counsel Brad Smith spoke about the opportunities that cloud computing presents to them and other cloud service providers. But it’s putting greater pressure on Washington policy makers and Congress to protect companies from attacks on their servers and privacy. Did you know that law enforcement routinely ask for data on the cloud – which is NOT protected from existing privacy protections? Microsoft is clear on what it wants the government to do: update the Electronic Communications Privacy Act to apply to protections on the Web. It also wants stronger rules against cyber attacks by reforming the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.

“Courts are less clear about what is reasonable expectations of privacy when it comes to data that goes to a third-party” server, Smith said at the dinner, according to the Post. Apparently, many in the room said there should be basic privacy and security protections for all consumers.

And the Federal Trade Commission is investigating privacy concerns on the cloud, as end users often aren’t aware of where their data is being held or what kind of protections are in force.

And then there’s the issue of information borders on the cloud. What kind of rights should a cloud app user who’s living in the U.S. expect when their information is hacked by users in China? “This is really popping and something that will be very disruptive,” said Alec Ross, senior adviser on innovation to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, in the Post article. “We need to think about who the great actors are and what they do with that information … and then set forth a clear set of values and norms.”

What would I have said if I were in the room, part of the dinner? Something like this: while we wait for the perfect cloud world to arrive, where everyone’s data is safer than Fort Knox, there are ways that businesses can add a little insurance to using the cloud, such as monitoring your cloud provider for reliability, or monitoring your sites and transaction volume. With warnings delivered in a variety of ways, you get some peace of mind that whatever trouble is brewing can be headed off.