Cloud Solution Provider: 'Forget The 1 Percent, Occupy Google Apps'

Cloud solution provider Cumulus Global is launching a tongue-in-cheek cloud play to bring more SMBs into the cloud world with its "Occupy Google Apps" movement.

Both poking fun at and taking elements from the nationwide Occupy movements, Occupy Google Apps is a way for smaller companies to free themselves from the enterprise-focused IT shackles of the "1 percent," or major vendors like HP, Microsoft and Oracle, and move to the cloud and Google's cloud collaboration and application suite.

"For more than two decades, SMBs have struggled under the oppressive 1 percent regimes of big IT companies that put their interests and the interests of their 'corporate' or 'enterprise' customers first. SMBs are the engines of innovation, jobs, and economic growth. Yet, the self-appointed 'industry leaders and giants' treat SMBs like unwanted pets," Occupy Google Apps says on its Web site.

Allen Falcon, CEO of the Westborough, Mass.-based cloud provider, said the Occupy Google Apps initiative is a bit of a tongue-in-cheek satire designed to expose that most cloud vendors are so focused on the enterprise that they try to shoehorn SMBs, aka the 99 percent, into their product lines. Falcon said big tech vendors, like the 1 percent, offer extra features and costs without the additional value because they're used to serving large enterprises. Occupy Google Apps is encouraging SMBs to "shed their big tech burden and move to Google Apps for Business and other cloud computing solutions."

Some of the key gripes that Falcon said he hears from SMBs include that large systems have complex and expensive licensing options; there are forced hardware upgrades to run updated software; upgrades are expensive and don't offer relevant new features; patches and updates are time consuming; and hosted services are often misrepresented as cloud computing.

"It is absurd that small businesses are paying consultants to figure out the best licensing option when buying basic software like operating systems and office productivity suites," Falcon said in a statement. "Occupy Google Apps is about easy to use, secure, and reliable services, and only paying for what you need."

Falcon's and Cumulus Global's Occupy Google Apps push is aimed at SMBs in the 1 to 100 seat sweet-spot, a space often ignored by larger vendors. Falcon said his goal is to raise awareness around cloud computing and Google Apps in particular.

"All of the real Occupy web sites are about protesting something. This Occupy site is about joining something," Falcon said. "And you don't have to sleep out on the cold or worry about getting maced."