Ancoris, the UK's leading Google Enterprise Partner, assists enterprises adopting Google Chromebook and Chrome OS devices. The announcement of the Google Chromebook, with UK availability in June 2011 for the first devices from Samsung and Acer, marks the end of the inevitable desktop refresh cycle that most organisations face every three or four years.
Several industry trends such as cloud computing, the need for mobility and the consumerisation of IT have led to the need of a new operating system such as Chrome OS. The Chrome OS and the new products which will use the operating system will change desktop estates forever. Microsoft OS upgrades have typically driven the desktop re-fresh cycle and but this requirement will now begin to wane.
The average cost of ownership of a desktop computer system over a three year period is £1,658 according to figures from IDC and NPD. Before the Chrome OS and Chromebook announcement an organisation with 100 employees would spend £165,800 over a three year period purchasing and maintaining desktop PC’s. Google’s announcement of the Chromebook at a cost of $28 per user per month (£210 per year) for a device requiring no capital expenditure, no additional OS licencing costs, no patching and without an expensive 3 year refresh and OS upgrade and including hardware replacements and upgrades suggests saving of at least 50% over the traditional Windows desktop.
For users having an “instant-on” device will eliminate the frustrations associated with complex PCs with long boot times; start-up in less than 10 seconds transforms the use of desktop devices.
The announcement of partnerships with Citrix and VMWare addresses the last real concern of the enterprise; how to access legacy applications. With the inclusion of Citrix Receiver (which Citrix also recently announced for the iPad), business users can be freed from the constraints of a Windows PC but access their non-web applications on a “web only device”.
We expect true cloud based desktop to be the norm within the next three years. Medium sized businesses which use a limited number of applications on a daily basis are likely to be the first to take advantage of a web only environment.
No longer will businesses have to worry about technical issues such as software upgrades, updates or patching. Hardware issues and upfront capital costs will be a thing of the past due to mobile phone like contracts, which include maintenance and hardware upgrades.
The launch of the Chromebook can only accelerate the adoption of web-based applications such as Google Apps for Business as a replacement for business applications such as Microsoft Office, Exchange and Sharepoint.
Google also announced full offline access for applications such as GMail, Google Calendar and Google Docs, addressing one of the other questions about cloud computing devices.
Google's success with Android, going from zero to 50% marketshare in less than 18 months, may well be repeated next at the desktop.
Finally the Chromebook promises a more secure environment than the traditional PC:
Contact us for more information about Google Chrome OS and the Google Chromebooks and how we can help you integrate this in your environment.
