Today, Google and BBVA announced the largest Google Apps deal to date. With over 110,000 employees in more than 26 countries, Spanish bank Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA will start using Google Docs, Sites, Mail, and Calendar by the end of 2012.
This is a big deal, and not just because it’s a big deal. That made sense, right?
1. It’s a Bank - When the topic of moving to the cloud in general (and Google Apps vs. Microsoft specifically) is raised, the inevitable debates over security and regulation come up. In an industry as highly regulated as financial services, having a 100,000+ employee giant make the switch definitely sends a signal that Google is indeed “enterprise ready”.
2. BBVA’s Decision Isn’t Just About Saving Money – Though businessweek quotes Google Apps Customers as saving about 50-70% compared to on-premise office software, BBVA’s decision wasn’t simply a cost cutting measure. From a post today on the Google Enterprise blog from José Olalla, CIO at BBVA:
We were looking for a technology that would transform our business operations – not just make our workers more efficient. Integrating the Google Apps for Business suite with our own tools will allow us to introduce a new way of working where employees have access to all the information they need with just one click, no matter where they are or what kind of device they use, and can reap the benefits of using advanced collaboration tools.
This solidifies Google Apps position as not simply a lower-cost version of a more expensive on-premise product, but instead, a new set of transformative technologies that drive collaboration and add new benefits.
3. It shows momentum - With two horses in the cloud productivity suite race when it comes to the enterprise, a win by one is a loss by the other. A huge customer win shows that Google is really picking up steam in the Enterprise (something we’ve seen here at CloudLock).
CloudLock For Google Apps helps Google Apps administrators secure access to their Google Docs and Sites. 7 day free trials are available on the Google Apps Marketplace.
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