Googleの開発投資の行き先

Googleが今後開発リソースの投資を傾ける分野として次の３つを挙げている。  いづれもWebを唯一の基盤としたソフトウェアソリューションベンダーとしてのスタンスが明確に伺える。

 

１）  クラウド環境をよるアクセスしやすいものとする
Google App Engineを利用してより広いユーザ層に開発を促し、さらに自社のデータセンターを開放してスケーラビリティの高いアプリケーション開発を可能にするとの事。

２） モバイル環境の充実化
自社の推進しているAndroidプラットホームの浸透によって、オープンで自由度の高いアプリケーションをモバイルの世界で展開する。

３）  クライアントの強化

Gears、HTML5やJavascriptの強化によってクライアントがより高度なアプリケーションをブラウザーをベースに使えるようにする。

Google outlines Web development investments in three areas

Web 'is the only platform we've known,' says Google's chief of engineering

 

May 29, 2008 (CIO) To encourage the creation of more Web-based applications during the next several years, Google Inc. will invest in three key areas for developers, including opening up its servers to host their applications, encouraging pervasive connectivity to the Web, and making the browser more powerful, said Vic Gundotra, Google's vice president of engineering, who gave the opening keynote speech at this year's Google Developer Conference at the Moscone Center in San Francisco.

"Google was born in the era of the Web," Gundotra said. "It's the only platform we've known. It was a platform that was formed by consensus. It was all of us collectively that agreed to a few standards. We feel a debt of gratitude toward that community."

Gundotra conceded that Web developers working atop Google-provided development tools and servers would lead to remunerative opportunities for the Mountain View, Calif.-based company. "As the Web gets bigger and enables better Web apps, it attracts more users. For us, more users means more Google searches, which leads to more revenue. But the money we make will get dumped back into the platform," he said.

Here's a summary of Google's investment plans (though they never specified dollar amounts):

1. Making the Cloud More Accessible

Google will open up the Google data centers so that developers can more easily scale their applications. This means that developers will still create their app locally on their machines and test it, but once it's ready, they can deploy it to millions of users, according to Gundotra.

This will be done using the Google App Engine. Kevin Gibbs, tech lead for the Google App Engine, told the audience that the product would be free for up to 5 million page views a month. After that, a price plan will be worked out involving metrics such as page views, storage and CPUs.

2. Keeping Connectivity Pervasive

Google believes the mobile revolution will improve connectivity, and it's betting on its Android platform to be the central place for development on top of the mobile Web. Gundotra said the various mobile platforms (such as Windows Mobile, Apple's SDK and Research In Motion's BlackBerry platform) are "too fragmented." In his view, an open source, mobile stack can centralize mobile development, which Google believes will be embodied by Android.

During the presentation, Steve Horowitz, Android's engineering director, displayed the Android platform's capabilities on a touch-screen phone. These included some of Google's basic apps, such as Gmail and calendaring, and a more complex Google Maps feature called street view, which allows users to see pictures of streets in major cities.

3. Make the Client (Browser) More Powerful

Google believes its Gears plug-in (which allows people to take Web apps offline and utilize the power of their desktop) and HTML 5 represent the future of the Web browser. By using these tools to extend the capabilities of JavaScript, Gundotra said, Web apps can become more powerful and more rich.

Sun MicrosystemsのSaaS戦略

まだ詳細は明らかになっていないが、Sunが中小企業向けにSaaS事業を展開する事が明らかに。  Project Carolineという名前で当面呼ばれる。 

 

Sun Shares Details on Project Caroline

Sun Microsystems (JAVA) used the recent SunLabs Open house to provide lots of details about Project Caroline, its new platform for small and medium sized software-as-a-service (SaaS) providers. Sun's Rich Zippel has blogged about the event and posted links to the documentation Sun has published about Project Caroline, including two hours of video of technical presentations and live demos of the service.

Project Caroline is designed to helps software providers develop services rapidly, update in-production services frequently, and automatically adjust their use of platform resources to match changing runtime demands.

Sun Microsystems社が自社のSaaS事業を発表、ISVに対してサービスを開始

Sun Microsystems helps ISVs with SaaS model

Sun Microsystems introduced a new virtualization service called Solaris On Demand, a software as a service (SaaS) program created to help the independent software vendor (ISV) community.

Solaris On Demand helps convert traditional installation applications into a software as a service model. By leveraging Sun's virtualization technology, ISVs can offer their applications on-demand without having to use a multi-tenancy application architecture and without having to make any code changes.

To make this transition from a traditional software to a SaaS architecture, Sun is offering a 90-day free trial to its customers to ensure success. Joining the program, ISVs will have access to hosting, hardware, managed services and backup, with a 99.5 percent guaranteed uptime service level agreement through either Sun or one of its partners, which include AT&T's USi Communications, NTT Europe Online or NaviSite. In addition, Sun also provides technical, budgetary and marketing support.

"Working closely with our community of ISVs, we developed a program to meet the new needs of ISVs as they move from on-premise solutions and business practices to an on-demand model," said Juan Carlos Soto, vice president of global market development and engineering, Sun Microsystems.

"The Solaris On Demand program combines Sun's expertise and leading network computing technologies such as the open source Solaris OS, xVM virtualization technology, and energy-efficient systems with high availability hosting solutions from Sun partners. In the end, we eliminate the risk for ISVs as they transition to delivering their SaaS applications."

To join the Solaris On Demand program, sign up on Sun's Web site.

Costs can vary based on hosting needs but a company can get an idea as to the cost during their 90 day trial period before they make a long term commitment.

SunがSolaris環境上のアプリケーションをSaaSに移行するプログラムを開発、発表

Sun Launches SaaS Conversion Program For ISV Partners

Sun Microsytems is launching a program to help ISVs whose software runs on the Solaris operating system convert their products to software-as-a-service applications.

In addition to providing technical assistance and an application test environment, Sun, through the Solaris On-Demand Program, is offering counseling for making changes to such business processes as sales and customer billing that can be very different when selling SaaS services instead of on-premise applications.

More than 6,500 commercial ISVs have applications that run on Sun's Solaris 10 Unix operating system, said Juan Carlos Soto, Sun's Vice-President of global market development and engineering. Soto leads Sun's efforts to promote Solaris adoption among ISVs and the executive says the new initiative is in response to demand from partner ISVs that want to extend their on-premise applications into the software-as-a-service world.

"We want to make sure ISVs look at Sun's network computing infrastructure as they consider an on-demand model," Soto said. Some ISVs may develop SaaS applications from scratch while others will adapt existing applications, he said.

The program includes technical assistance and computing infrastructure for developing and optimizing the applications for a multi-tenant architecture. "Porting the application is non-trivial, in some cases," Soto said. Sun is also providing use of an "on-demand sandbox" test environment for up to 90 days for conducting proof-of-concept testing of converted applications, using servers and networks in data centers managed by several service providers, including NaviSite, AT&T's USi Communications and NTT Europe Online.

Sun doesn't plan to charge ISVs for the services, although Soto said Sun could levy fees if deeper, more custom consulting services are needed.

Callidus Software, a developer of sales performance management applications, has already run through the program to develop its products for software as a service. "We needed an easy way to implement SaaS with unparalleled scalability and flexibility," said Jeff Saling, Senior Vice-President for the company's Callidus On-Demand product, in a statement.