5 Questions to Ask Before Renting Google Chromebooks

The desktop issue is one of the biggest challenges to face the enterprise. Tablets, smartphones, laptops, netbooks and personal computers are all part of the mix.

Google’s Chromebook for business is symbolic of this shift. It represents the mainstream acceptance of conducting business online and how we view the role of the desktop in the post-PC era.

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This shift is part of a universal transformation. The underlying architecture of the Web is changing with the advent of Apache Hadoop and NoSQL, open cloud architectures like OpenStack and fundamental changes in networking like OpenFlow. Virtualization is allowing for better optimization by creating a layer for operating systems to work peacefully on one device.

Those are macro-level issues. Right now the issue is understanding how to treat the desktop and already existing investments. Here are five questions to consider.

What are the Comparable Costs?

It’s the question of costs that will drive decision making. The cost seems low at $28 per month for business customers, but there are other factors to consider such as how to integrate back-end applications. VMware and Citrix virtualization technology will work on the Chromebook but that creates infrastructure costs that smaller organizations may find expensive. That’s the concern of Vectrocon Computer Consulting, which sees the issue this way:

The problem for our small business clients is that the infrastructure required to do this may exceed the value of the security provided by the Chromebook. We have had clients that use terminal services in this way for years, but “dumb terminals” rarely fit the bill for our clients because the capital cost is excessive, and the long term support savings from the terminals is offset by the increased costs of maintaining the back end infrastructure. Such a tradeoff poses a problem for small businesses with less than 20 PCs, especially if those PCs perform different roles (that is, they’re not all identical machines running one or two applications).

We will monitor the costs of these machines and the cost of the backend infrastructure, and if it makes sense for our clients, we will begin deployment.

How is the security?

This is a troubling turning point for the antivirus industry. Chrome does minimize attacks which makes it tremendously appealing to companies that are spending a fortune in AV software. It’s also reflective of the shifting desktop market that is now quickly moving into the post-PC era. These devices do not rely on AV vendors for security. It’s the companies like Google that control how security is administrated.

But there are other security concerns to consider as Costin Raiu points out in a ZDnet post. Raiu is director of Kaspersky Lab’s Global Research and Analysis Team.

So, what can we expect from a security point of view? Obviously, with all your data being available into the cloud, in one place, available 24/7 through a fast internet link, this will be a goldmine for cybercriminals. All that is necessary here is to get hold of the authentication tokens required to access the cloud account; this is already happening with malware that has become “steal everything” in the past few years. Although the endpoint is now more secure, the situation is that the data is in a more risky place and it will be much easier to silently steal it.

Does it Speed up the Business?

I think this is the biggest question to consider. Over lunch earlier this week, the question came up about how to describe the new business world and how it works. I compare it to doing business 20 years ago. Fedex did a killer business in those days. The delivery service could get documents overnight to people on opposite sides of the country. A PC was mind-blowing in its speed and ability to do analysis. Today, the speed is in making things, getting it done fast, automation and most of all making your data work for you instead of working for your data. But is a Chromebook the way to do that? There are other issues to consider that cut to the core of the organization that have to be considered. Buying Chromebooks isn’t going to make your company faster. But if your people are Web savvy, it can help. Plus, it can help attract a younger generation who are native to the Web.

Is a Terminal the Best Way to Go?

Google co-founder Sergey Brin said at Google’s I/O that people are frustrated with the amount of time it takes to manage software. People are less interested in managing a PC, but does it mean that people want to give up the ability to configure a PC or MacBook to their liking? The Chromebook is similar to a terminal in its central control. That may be better for security but the trade-offs need to be considered. These include issues such as the need for universal connectivity, Wi-Fi availability and offline access to applications and documents.

How Will Google Handle Customer Service?

Google does offer customer support with the Chromebook. According to the Chromebook FAQ:

Administrators receive 24/7 email and phone support, as well as access to the Google Enterprise Support Portal, where they can find answers to questions related to device and user policies and other Chromebook related topics. customers will receive email and phone support.

The support question comes in wake of Google’s problems with helping customers who had Nexus phones but could not contact someone on the phone to get their questions answered. The company is not known for its support culture. Tom Foremski predicts Google will turn over customer support to hardware manufacturers within six months.

Our Take

Google is hitting on the issues of complexity, cost and the demand for ease of use and faster ways to get the work done. But simplicity requires abstractions. And those abstractions means the individual giving up more control. But these Chromebooks are still going to be popular. I was on a plane last week and an accountant sitting next to me said to me that he has a bank client considering issuing terminals to customers for the sole purpose of accessing their accounts. That’s representative of a general disruption that we are seeing in the post-PC era. Devices are everywhere and they can be used for any number of purposes. The question is really about how organizations create their own vision of the desktop.

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