Enterprise 2.0 News

As you know, Google Apps contains only those applications that are useful for collaboration. And because of this, Google Apps users have a problem with accessing other Google services - they constantly need to switch between accounts. Especially it looks stupid if company is using Blogger for corporate blog, YouTube for corporate video-channel, running ad campaigns in Adwords, hosting corporate galleries in Picasa, or its employees are using Google Reader as an enterprise RSS client. According to the post in the Google Enterprise Blog, this summer most Google services will become available in Google Apps. It remains only to solve the issue with IT administrators that want to control and monitor these new services. ***

If you develop SaaS service or intend to move the IT infrastructure to the Internet, then, of course, you can buy VPS or dedicated server. But in the era of Cloud Computing that option is obsolete. If you want to have a really reliable, secure and scalable hosting,  to automate most operations and (eventually) save money, it is logical to use one of the cloud platforms. And, depending on your goal, you can select a very interesting solution, which provides far more opportunities superior than conventional hosting. For example, for SaaS developers some platforms provide ready client base. Below - our top ten list of cloud platforms. ***

IBM has always been leader on the IT integration market. With the help of its WebSphere platform the company could integrate complicated systems like SAP and Oracle and create even more complicated systems. But with the growing popularity of Cloud Computing the new challenges have appeared: link on-premise apps to the cloud apps and links cloud apps to one another. Here, IBM was not so efficient. Not because WebSphere doesn't provide the needed technology, but because its stupid for a company that almost instantly deploys new SaaS service, spend a few months to integrate it into the IT infrastructure. Today IBM made an attempt to fill this gap in its package of services and acquired one of the two leading SaaS integration services - OmniConnect (the second is Boomi). ***

Many companies use OTRS as a helpdesk-system for two reasons: it is free and is perfect for integration with web site and email. Now, OTRS can be also adopted by sysadmins and IT departments (even in large companies) - the new version OTRS ITSM 2.0 has been officially certified by expert company PinkVERIFY of compatibility with six ITIL v3 processes. As you know, ITIL - is the library of recommendations and best practices for managing IT infrastructure. OTRS ITSM has been around for about 3 years. Until today, it featured incident management, problem management, configuration management, SLA management and knowledge management. Version 2.0 added change management to that list. Now OTRS ITSM allows you to control such processes as setting up new employee with a laptop, implementing new systems and equipment, upgrading licensed software. ***

When it seemed that the mobile OS market is already overcrowded, the another top player entered the space. Today HP acquired Palm for $1.2 billion. Although Palm was the pioneer on the smartphone and PDA market (during the 1990s), in recent years, it  was taken over by Apple, Microsoft, Google, RIM, HTC, etc. Nevertheless, the company problems were probably caused not by its technologies, but by the lack of sales activities. Last year, Palm introduced the new mobile platform WebOS, which has received many positive reviews, but Palm WebOS sales failed due to the bad contracts with mobile operators. On the contrary, HP (aka the world's largest computer manufacturer) has no problems with sales. If HP install the Palm WebOS on their smartphones, PDAs, tablets and netbooks, this mobile platform will automatically reach the popularity of iPhone OS, Android, Blackberry and Windows Phone. ***

Salesforce and Google are becoming less friends but more rivals. Following the start of the cold war between ChatterExchange and Google Apps Marketplace, the companies will soon compete on the cloud platforms market. Today, Salesforce and VMWare introduced the joint product - VMForce.com - the cloud platform for Java applications, which will compete with Google App Engine. Moreover, compared to VMForce.com, GAE would look like a toy. VMForce.com (theoretically) is the ideal solution for companies using (or developing) Java-applications. On the one hand it's the Force.com's infrastructure, which provides reliable, secure and scalable hosting, database, authentication, interface builder (Visualforce), business process designer, mobile access, integrated collaboration system (Chatter). On the other hand - it's the VMWare's ecosystem for Java applications: open-source Java Springs Framework and the runtime platform vCloud. ***

This year Kayako will release the new version of its technical support suite. One of the main new features in Kayako SupportSuite V4 will be p2p remote-desktop application Kayako OnSite, which was recently demonstrated to the developer community. As known, Kayako SupportSuite includes a fully functional Helpdesk system with a customer portal and online knowledge base (eSupport), as well as the online chat system (LiveResponse). Remote Desktop application will complement this suite and strengthen Kayako's leadership on the market. According to Kayako developers, they managed to solve two major problems of remote-desktop solutions - firewalls and low video quality. Kayako OnSite (like Skype) silently establishes connection between two remote computers without the need to set up router and firewall. And thanks to the adjustable color depth and screen size, the application works quickly even at low speed connections. ***

The world's most popular enterprise Email client, MS Outlook, is already equipped with various Enterprise 2.0 tools. Outlook is already integrated with social networks (Xobni and Outlook Social Connector), Google Apps, Google Docs (Harmony), Remember the Milk, etc. Now, when this place is crowded, the developers switched their attention to the second most popular enterprise Email client - Lotus Notes. Thus, the new plug-in + service Gist makes the same for Lotus Notes as Xobni for Outlook - allows you to see the social profiles of those with whom you communicate. Gist pulls the latest information about a person from Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, as well as recent news about his company from blogs and news sites. In addition, the plug-in displays in suitable form all correspondence with selected contact and files sent to/from him. It should be noted that Gist also works with Outlook, GMail, iPhone and may also be accessed as a web service. ***

Nowadays the confidentiality of personal information is not so important. Especially for sales guys, like Salesforce's management. Today, Salesforce has acquired Jigsaw, which TechCrunch's Mike Arrington at first called evil and then simply amoral. Jigsaw - is a huge (21 million) online database of contacts and companies, filled by crowdsourcing: users add contact information of other people (without their knowledge) usually from business cards. When the service appeared in 2006, it paid people $1 for each added contact. Then Jigsaw sell the access to contacts database to companies using cold calling (or spammers). And there was no way to remove your contacts from the service. ***

Today, Microsoft and Facebook opened the new service (+ Facebook app) Docs.com, which allows to store and display office documents on your Facebook profile and share them (for viewing and collaborative editing) with your friends, groups or all Facebook users. Documents can be viewed in the browser with the new viewer and edited with Office Web Applications. The online editors are still available only to beta testers, and their reviews are not very positive. But the point of the service is not in the editors but in Facebook integration. Will it be useful for business? At first glance, business-users will not use Facebook to collaborate on documents. But as a marketing channel to promote MS Office Web - it can work. Especially in light of the new Facebook plan, aimed to grab the Internet: ***