Google’s Cloud May Soon Drive General Motors: Reports

There are reports, cited by The Wall Street Journal’s Amir Efrati, that General Motors is ready to sign a deal to move its 100,000-plus workforce to Gmail and Google Apps. (Also reported by ZDNet’s Rachel King.)

If it really does happen, it will be a huge move in moving desktop and productivity apps to the cloud. Gmail is already replacing many on-premise email systems, particularly at colleges and universities.

GM makes it interesting as it is a classic industrial-era enterprise that appears to be ready to embrace cloud computing in a big way. Perhaps to focus on what it needs to do best, and that is build cars — not run IT. In fact, GM — which owned EDS from 1984 to 2008 — has increasingly recognized that not everyone, no matter how big, should be in the IT business. (Even though, as we point out many times on this blogsite, the lines have blurred between software providers and consumers to the point they are becoming indistinguishable.)

For its part, Google claims at least four million businesses already subscribe to its apps, which include email, calendar, and document collaboration. It can be assumed that these businesses also subscribe to services offered through the Google Apps Marketplace, which offers everything from accounting & finance to project management tools.