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.
- 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.
- 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?
- 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?
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.
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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This doesn't answer all the potential questions, but it's something: From http://dataliberation.org: "The Data Liberation Front is an engineering team at Google whose singular goal is to make it easier for users to move their data in and out of Google products. We do this because we believe that you should be able to export any data that you create in (or import into) a product. We help and consult other engineering teams within Google on how to "liberate" their products."
This doesn't answer all the potential questions, but it's something: From http://dataliberation.org: “The Data Liberation Front is an engineering team at Google whose singular goal is to make it easier for users to move their data in and out of Google products. We do this because we believe that you should be able to export any data that you create in (or import into) a product. We help and consult other engineering teams within Google on how to “liberate” their products.”
I'm an optimist that also tends towards Devil's advocacy. Google is BIG, getting BIGGEST and we're giving them all our data. Information is power, power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. For now, however, they appear to be using their Powers for Good. When there's an in-house equivalent to Google Docs, I'll be jumping on that but in the meantime the bennies far outweigh the risks.
I'm an optimist that also tends towards Devil's advocacy. Google is BIG, getting BIGGEST and we're giving them all our data. Information is power, power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. For now, however, they appear to be using their Powers for Good. When there's an in-house equivalent to Google Docs, I'll be jumping on that but in the meantime the bennies far outweigh the risks.
This interesting notion is one reason that I use a wiki host for my classroom web site, http://www.barnesclass.com. I can do anything there that I would do with Google apps, and I know it's save and secure. I don't think Google is going any place; maybe I'm just a control freak.
This interesting notion is one reason that I use a wiki host for my classroom web site, http://www.barnesclass.com. I can do anything there that I would do with Google apps, and I know it's save and secure. I don't think Google is going any place; maybe I'm just a control freak.
This isn't a question that just just be asked with a Google product, or a product in the cloud. This is a question that I ask with every piece of software we purchase: "What is the cost of leaving this product". What if suddenly Microsoft announced that they were releasing a "patch" that allowed them access to your servers? What if the company providing your SIS is taken over by another company and you cannot get support for your product any more? What if your anti-virus company goes out of business and stops updating definitions? In all of these cases you need an exit strategy – and coming up with one on the fly is dangerous and expensive. We should have a plan before we leap. As mentioned above, Google's data liberation project shows that Google is dedicated to allowing you to move your data. What would it take to move your Data off of an exchange server if that was no longer a viable solution? Probably the same amount as it would take to leave Google. The good part is at least you were not spending anything on Google while you had it. Simple point – in software, or in life, always have an exit strategy. Goes back to the Boy Scout Motto – Be Prepared.I am cross posting this on my blog as well.Hank
This isn't a question that just just be asked with a Google product, or a product in the cloud. This is a question that I ask with every piece of software we purchase: “What is the cost of leaving this product”. What if suddenly Microsoft announced that they were releasing a “patch” that allowed them access to your servers? What if the company providing your SIS is taken over by another company and you cannot get support for your product any more? What if your anti-virus company goes out of business and stops updating definitions? In all of these cases you need an exit strategy – and coming up with one on the fly is dangerous and expensive. We should have a plan before we leap. As mentioned above, Google's data liberation project shows that Google is dedicated to allowing you to move your data. What would it take to move your Data off of an exchange server if that was no longer a viable solution? Probably the same amount as it would take to leave Google. The good part is at least you were not spending anything on Google while you had it. Simple point – in software, or in life, always have an exit strategy. Goes back to the Boy Scout Motto – Be Prepared.I am cross posting this on my blog as well.Hank
Henry,Wise words! Thanks for posting this comment.Doug
Henry,Wise words! Thanks for posting this comment.Doug