In the high-tech world, 10 years seems like a century, compared to the pace of prior technological advances. Google was founded in 1998 as a search engine. The company dramatically expanded its range of services, as we all know too well. In 2004, the company started offering Google Enterprise, a pack of services created for businesses.
Google Enterprise offered specialized products for businesses who paid monthly subscriptions. The world of tech changed so much in the last couple of years that Google Enterprise will be renamed as Google for Work
“We never set out to create a traditional “enterprise” business—we wanted to create a new way of doing work,” Google’s Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt stated in a blog post. “So the time has come for our name to catch up with our ambition. As of today, what was called Google Enterprise is now, simply, Google for Work.”
Google will naturally develop further its mobile character. Android Wear is a novelty at the moment, but the company already promised important updates to be delivered in the next couple of months.
Google For Work is a core business for Google
Amit Singh, president of Google for Work, declared in a press conference on Tuesday that mobility is the main factor contributing to the change of vision. Android has changed the way people can contribute to projects, as all sorts of Google apps like Maps or the document managers are accessible on the go. Similarly, while few years ago cloud computing seemed futuristic, now it is a standard way of doing managing data.
Google services are very popular among businesses, Singh notes. Almost 60 percent of the Fortune 500 companies use Google for Work paid services.
As InformationWeek reminds us, Apple made a similar move in 2007, although much more substantial. Back then, Apple decided to remove ‘Computers’ from its name as an indicator of its new business outlook.
Moreover, another important change is in the business environment. Many companies using Google’s paid services are small or medium sized. They clearly do not identify with the meaning implied by ‘enterprise’.
Changing the name from Google Enterprise to Google for Work is an action meant to reveal the present state of affairs. Google will keep investing in the development of its successful branch. The sector is valued by some analysts at one billion dollars, although Google did not reveal the actual numbers.