Multiple users using Office can edit the same document at the same time and see each other's edits as they happen. With Google Apps able to store files of any type and now with DocVerse in its portfolio, it's just a question of time until Google replaces DocVerse's cloud (the collaborative backbone to which DocVerse users currently save their work) with Google Apps' cloud.
This so-called "airplane" problem is one that desktop software makers use for hoisting cloud computing on its own petard and the withdrawal of this feature will undoubtedly become a haymaker for Microsoft. But one of the benefits of running a cloud computing infrastructure with 25 million users like Google does with Google Apps is you get to see what features people are using and, as it turns out, the offline feature wasn't getting used as often as everyone thought it would. At least that's what Google officials say, nervously.
The dilemma for Google is that the very same people to whom the lack of offline access will matter, the CXOs who do a lot of travel, are the same ones whose opinions weigh heavily in major technology decisions -- for example, the decision to move to Google Apps. Officially, Google says it is "working to support an improved offline access option in the future."
According to Google engineering director Alan Warren, "Docs was dependent on Gears for offline access. But it was a sparsely used feature. So support for offline in Docs will go away for a while and users will not be able to autosync [their documents in the cloud with their PCs]. That feature will come back when we get synced up with HTML5's data caching model."
But DocVerse will probably have a role, too. One of the other features of DocVerse is how it resyncs shared Office documents with the cloud if an Office user has worked on those documents while offline. Essentially, people who fly around or spend a predictable amount of time off the grid qualify as power users. Like the other power users, they could get a copy of Office to guarantee that no matter where they are, they can get their work done. When asked, Google officials wouldn't say if DocVerse would be free to users of Google Apps.
But history shows that when Google introduces a new interoperability technology into Google Apps (Exchange import tools, Outlook functionality, BlackBerry Enterprise Server interoperability, mobile device management, etc.), it has always been free to users of Google Apps. A Google official agreed that that pattern of adding interoperability tools at no cost isn't likely to change.
In some ways, the acquisition of DocVerse reflects Google's recognition of an important reality: The company must be prepared to support a hybrid model if it wants in with certain customers. Google Enterprise Group product management director Matt Glotzbach told InformationWeek that Google views "the Web as a platform. ... We don't view it as a companion to the desktop." But proving that Google knows it must make allowances for certain types of users, Google Enterprise Group president Dave Girouard admitted that "all companies will have Office; they just won't have as much of it. ... Office will become something like Photoshop, something that a few users need. It's not really the right tool for most people."
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