Google Searching for Support in the Channel
Google is moving deeper into Microsoft's sacred ground -- the channel -- through
a
deal with
Ingram Micro to distribute the Google Search Appliance and the Google Mini.
Redmond surely can't like seeing this. Google is already killing Microsoft
in the consumer search market -- a market Microsoft desperately wants to dominate.
Now, here comes Google storming further into enterprise search, maybe the only
area of search in which Microsoft might have had a built-in advantage for reasons
we hope are obvious (as in, pretty much everybody has a Microsoft infrastructure
with lots of data floating around in it).
And not only is Google storming in, it's storming in with a big channel play.
Redmond will surely counter -- already has, really -- with SharePoint's (excellent,
from what we can tell) search capabilities and the tried-and-true Microsoft
integration pitch. But will it fly? Or will Google's name-brand search juggernaut
also make an impact on the enterprise? The answers to those questions are largely
up to partners now that Google and Microsoft are both reaching out to the channel
in a big way.
How interested are you in working with Google's search appliances for the enterprise?
Let me know at [email protected].
Posted by Lee Pender on June 29, 2007