COMPLIMENTARY ADVISORY REPORT

Google Wave,
Upending the Enterprise

| July 14, 2009 | Collaboration and Conferencing | Advisory Report

| Analyst: Brad Shimmin, Principal Analyst, Collaboration and Conferencing
| Follow Brad on Twitter

We are rapidly approaching an inflection point within the collaboration and conferencing marketplace where the roles played by PCs and the Web will flip flop. Already, enterprise data, custom applications and line-of-business applications are increasingly leaving the desktop, taking up residence on the Web as software-as-a-service (SaaS) offerings. The reasoning is apparent and compelling. IT departments can future proof investments, as updates "just happen" without substantial downtime. They can greatly reduce desktop management and support costs. And they can at last operate as a flexible, service-oriented entity, driving business rather than merely supporting legacy equipment investments.

The drivers behind this march to the cloud include the meteoric rise of social networking, the accompanying blurring of personal and business user personas, the empowerment of mobile devices, the allure of Web-centric Netbook computers, and the emergence of Web-based productivity collaboration products. Of these solutions, Google's forthcoming collaborative suite and development framework, Google Wave, appears to have single-handedly accelerated this role reversal, creating along the way numerous competitive opportunities and challenges for vendors working within the collaboration and conferencing marketplace.

Just how much of a game changer Google Wave becomes remains to be seen, however. The product is a long way away from technological maturity. Google has historically shown itself to be somewhat fickle when it comes to maintaining unusual (read risky) software over the long haul. The very nature of Google Wave requires a huge leap in user understanding, as it breaks down assumptions about the nature of real-time and asynchronous communications. And the business model for Google Wave itself is not likely to be formalized until later this year. All of these unknowns should encourage vendors to approach Google Wave cautiously. In this way, Google Wave represents both a sizable opportunity and a considerable risk for collaboration and conferencing vendors.

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