What IF...The Google Cloud Evaporates?
One of my least favorite books—and conversations—is “What if?” I like to deal in reality, which is why I write non-fiction, but love to indulge in sci-fi and fantasy. Like other human beings, I am a mess of contradictions and learning can get messy as I work through those (or learn to reconcile them).
Brian Crosby (Learning is Messy) asks a challenging WHAT IF question about GoogleApps for Education that is well worth our time to consider:
Brian said…
Hi Miguel - I have heard some question the move to Google Apps because you have then invested a lot of time making the change and what if for any number of reasons Google Apps goes away or starts to charge$? What is your take on that concern?
Thanks,
Brian
JANUARY 31, 2010 11:55 AM
His comment appears in response to a blog entry about the 18th largest public school district in the United States switching from MS Exchange to GoogleApps for Education. What’s so powerful about the Prince Georges Schools journey in Maryland is not just their size, but the documentation they made of the transition to share with others. Simply, looking at their documentation provides insights of what they had to accomplish to transition from in-house MS Exchange solution to GoogleApps for Education.
Although others have spoken to the issue of cost savings—Doug Johnson most notably in a recent blog entry—I’m going to make some statements now about it.
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We should be asking this question and getting some assurances from Google or whatever vendor we decide to use to host data in the cloud, public or private. One of the hard lessons of using an outsourced system—whether for student information systems, ePortfolios—districts should learn vicariously is that they should never, ever move their data into a system unless they have a clearly articulated exit strategy.
That exit strategy should not only involve control of the data, but also how to make that data work on their own systems. One obvious solution would be for GoogleApps for Education to make a “standalone” version that works on school district servers, OR provide migration tools to other systems that exist. Data and the structures that house that data should be as portable as possible.
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What if Google turns out to be evil? That is, they make public your private documents? While this would be a terrible thing, let’s not forget Google is a for-profit company. What if?
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What if Google goes bankrupt? Well, this is true of any company. Who makes more money, Microsoft or Google? Consider the graph below reflecting revenue from 2008…has this changed significantly?
Based on the information, questions, what would you do? Well, let’s end with Doug Johnson’s approach:
These are rough and admittedly optimistic estimates, but I think you can see the general trend. Even if only 50% of my estimated nearly $2M in savings is realized, that averages out to close to $200,000 per year. (Out of a $1.2M budget.) I am not suggesting reducing tech budgets by this amount, but I can sure think of a lot more interesting things (like kids’ computers, a more robust wireless network, and more bandwidth) to spend tech dollars on.
Is it worthwhile? Hmm…5 Temptations of a CEO:
Temptation #3: Ensure that your decisions are correct.
Advice: Make clarity more important than accuracy…your people will learn more if you take decisive action than if you always wait for more info. It is your job (as CEO) to risk being wrong.
Avoid the temptation. You can save your District LOTS of money now and build up your infrastructure, bandwidth. To work in technology, you have to be willing to be mobile and change. I know what I’d do if I were CTO of a school district. Do you?
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Everything posted on Miguel Guhlin’s blogs/wikis are his personal opinion and do not necessarily represent the views of his employer(s) or its clients. Read Full Disclosure