Soaring into the cloud

Nearly 400 IT executives joined us last week for a discussion on the future of enterprise IT at Atmosphere, our first cloud computing summit at the Googleplex. It was an exciting day of conversation and debate about the power of the cloud. If you’re interested in seeing it for yourself, you can watch the public talks online:

• Improving collaboration: Our opening keynote announced the next generation of Google Docs, setting the stage for an inspiring roster of visionary thinkers.
• Forces for change: Author Geoffrey Moore and analyst Mary Meeker reflected on the role of IT and the emerging trends driving its evolution.
• Cloud adopters: Executives from Google Apps users Motorola, MeadWestvaco, Seagate and Genentech shared their experiences migrating thousands of employees to what Motorola Mobile Devices VP of IT Walt Oswald termed “the new world of IT.” (You can learn more about why businesses have gone Google on the Google Apps YouTube channel.)
• Expanding horizons: Cloud computing pioneers Marc Benioff, the founder and CEO of Salesforce.com, and Werner Vogels, the CTO of Amazon.com, expounded on the newest insights and innovations from their businesses.
• Google product highlights: Google’s product leaders showcased some of the latest features in Google Apps, Chrome OS, Android and search, while Vint Cerf, Alan Eustace and Jeff Huber explored our vision for enterprise computing.
• Beyond IT: Scientist Janine Benyus delighted the audience with her explanation of the biological imperatives for collaboration, and reminded us all that “life is a team sport.”

Atmosphere concluded with a public discourse between Eric Schmidt and Forbes National Editor Quentin Hardy:



The complete set of Atmosphere videos is now online, and you can learn more about our cloud computing solutions for businesses on the Google Apps website. We want to thank all those who participated in Atmosphere for their contributions to this unique experience!

Update 8:41PM: Removed video.
Update 4/20/2010: Added corrected video.

Posted by Dave Girouard, President of Google Enterprise