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The Google Apps Marketplace has been a runaway success, and a host of cloud providers are getting in on the action launching cloud apps and tools in the Marketplace.
The Google Cloud Marketplace, which officially launched in March 2010, offers Google Apps users access to a host of various third-party tools ranging from productivity apps to management apps that supplement Google's own offerings. It has grown by leaps and bounds in just 18 months, amassing hundreds of apps and services.
And in that short time, a host of cloud solution providers have stepped up and created apps of their own to be offered in the Google Apps Marketplace, a move that both boosts their cloud profile and gives Google Apps users the world over access to their wares.
Despite the exposure, some solution providers see Google's Apps Marketplace and other marketplaces as a double-edged sword that creates a new level of competition for cloud providers in the cloud computing game.
Google Apps reseller and cloud provider Salvair started with a migration tool to move users over from Exchange to Google Apps and later launched an IMAP tool to handle other migrations. The cloud provider developed utilities that it put into the Google Marketplace. The rationale was "we need to get [Exchange users] over to Google Apps with some sense of continuity," said Tom Cooper, Salvair principal and founder.
The problem, Cooper said, was that Google was often one step ahead.
"What we found is we couldn't out-guess Google sometimes," he said. "We didn't know if Google was going to come out with the same thing as us."
Cooper said as a reseller and cloud provider Salvair has always viewed the Google Apps Marketplace as a critical mass body that brings a focus on good solutions. He said Salvair's apps drove regular and consistent interest, but not enough that it made it worth trying to compete head to head with Google on the next big thing.
"We made a decision to go away from the Marketplace for a specific reason," he said. While Cooper wouldn't cite the exact reason it left the Google Apps Marketplace, he said the competition grew between Google and other cloud providers and it was no longer as viable a business driver as before.
"We just didn't see the future in outguessing Google and racing against competitors," he said. "It became a race to the bottom."
Next: Google Discusses Competition With Cloud Providers
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