Archive for October, 2009

Beta – a Bad Thing? (clue: nope)

Tuesday, October 27th, 2009

I was talking with a client the other day who mentioned that one of the reasons that they were initially slow to move to Google Apps for the enterprise, was the amount of time it typically takes Google to move products out of Beta. The reason that this ceased to be a problem, was when he realised two things.

  1. There is no obligation to turn on (or even allow to be turned on) all of the Google Apps product set.
  2. Google Apps “beta” offerings, are frequently better than other manufacturers applications that have been fully released to market.

The difference here is one of perception. Some manufacturers take a half finished product, market and sell it, and then fix the problems with updates afterwards. Google put a beta label on it, and then continually take feedback and improve it until they are happy, at which point they remove the beta label.

It is pretty much impossible to put a completely finished, bug free, perfect product out to the end users, and these are just two ways of dealing with that fact. Is one better than the other? Not necessarily – just different.

Any thoughts? Feel free to post in the comments…

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Posted in Google Apps, Information, cloud computing | No Comments »

Migrating To Google Apps … If You Want

Tuesday, October 20th, 2009

Over 2 million businesses worldwide have #goneGoogle and one of the reasons that it’s picking up pace is that Google are making it easier and easier to migrate from ‘old’ to ‘new’.

If you’re interested in the how it all works, check out the Geek Out on the technical details of a Google Apps migration webinar at a slightly icky time for us Kiwis, Friday, October 23rd at 7am (don’t worry, we’ll get up and will take notes for you all):

Migration experts Jim Copeland, Dan Kennedy, and Marcello Pederson will host a live webcast, “Geek Out on The Technical Details of a Google Apps Migration,” that will help you with the nitty-gritty details of moving into the cloud and answer your technical questions.

Having said that not everyone is enamoured with Google Apps and, let’s be honest about this, not everyone wants to use Google Apps for a whole host of reasons ranging from the political/cultural through “Google Apps is still a bit too piecemeal for lots of customers I talk to” (source), down to the “one key feature just doesn’t work for me” (example). And that’s exactly how it should be – we’ve seen enough domination of the IT industry by one major player to know it leads to stagnation, lock-in and higher costs without business benefits (Vista anyone?).

At WaveAdept (an official Google Apps re-seller, as you should know) we believe in options and using whatever gets the job done. If the options placed in front of you by us or any other re-seller don’t work (after giving it a go) we recommend NOT to use it, no matter what the cool kids on the block may say.

It’s YOUR choice!

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Posted in Google Apps, How To, Uncategorized | No Comments »

In Christchurch Next Week – Love To Talk Google With Us?

Monday, October 19th, 2009

As part of WaveAdept’s drive to create an “ecosystem” of Google Apps users around New Zealand two of us are on the road from next week.

First call, Christchurch – Thursday 29th / Friday 30th, October

With any collaboration discussion and particularly the breadth offered by Google Apps the discussions can be wide ranging and so we are targeting our time around the following topics:
  • What the hell is Google Apps?
  • How can it help my business and how much does it cost ($70/user/year!)
  • We already use it but not sure we’re getting the most value out of it, now what?
  • I know/use it personally and know my work would benefit but … how do they get it?
Of course, like all the best conversations nothing is written in stone so don’t hold back :-)

We’ve deliberately left time for those that we don’t know to get some free time with us.
(those that know and have already booked us are cool as but what about those that just want to hear more – this is YOUR time)

How to get time with Dave and I:
Look forward to talking with you one-on-one OR at the Canterbury CloudCamp event on the Friday afternoon.

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Canterbury Cloud Camp Unconference

Tuesday, October 13th, 2009

Here at WaveAdept we love “people doing it for themselves” and especially organisations that give their fellow workers the ability and responsibility to make decisions for the betterment of all. And it’s not just limited to organisations with “power to the masses” exploding all over the world and here in New Zealand. One such example of this is the continuing rise of “barcamp” or “unconference”* within NZ with the running of the excellent OpenGovt and the User Experience one coming (details).

Ben over at Diversity recently attended an Auckland barcamp, CloudCamp, and has arrived back home full of vim and vigour to hold such an event for Canterbury:

We’re keen to hold an unconference to explore this opportunity – it’s not going to be a tech event, rather it’s going to look at business models, strengths and weaknesses and the general appetite for working together. We’re going to hold the event on Friday 30 October at the Canterbury Development Corporation Training Room 1, Level Two, 193 Cashel Street Christchurch. We’ll be kicking off at 1pm. As is de rigeur for a tech event, there will be pizza and drinks afterwards and (hopefully) a general vibe of positivity and can-do throughout. Telecom New Zealand has generously come to the party and is sponsoring the event – so a big thanks to them for that. Thanks also to CDC for providing the venue.

At WaveAdept we are active in supporting local initiatives around “cloud computing” and are especially excited about this as it ties in so well with our (and Google’s) approach of “letting the people do it for themselves”

We’ll be there, will you?
Register via TwtVite, or email smina@memia.com your intention to attend.

* “unconference” from Wikipedia:
An unconference is a facilitated, participant-driven conference centered around a theme or purpose. The term “unconference” has been applied, or self-applied, to a wide range of gatherings that try to avoid one or more aspects of a conventional conference, such as high fees and sponsored presentations.

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Posted in Social, cloud computing | 1 Comment »