When a company gets as large as Google more than a handful of compromises have to be made. For example, take how the search engine titan talks about openness and being open about things. But at the same time, it has to be closed about many aspects of its business.
Up until the last few years we did not have too many details about its datacenters, and even now its cloud infrastructure is a fiercely guarded secret — with tough competitors like Amazon AWS and Windows Azure, this is almost a given.
But if you thought that Google would be flexible and open like many other companies when it comes to the hardware and software its employees use, then simply put, you would be on the wrong side of right.
Like many other companies, there are many products and services that are strictly forbidden on company phones and computers. In fact, employees are not allowed to take their own computers to work — everything is provided by Google.
AllThingsD took a look at the corporate inner workings at Google, along with what sort of stuff is banned and prohibited, and what kind of tools the company has come up internally.
For starters, Windows powered computers are very much forbidden.
Employees are only allowed to use Windows for work if they can prove it that they absolutely need the platform. Otherwise, they have a choice between Max OS X and Linux. And just as you would expect, Google has built its very own version of Linux.
More recently, however, employees are being transitioned to Chrome OS devices.
The same goes for Dropbox, and pretty much all other cloud storage products. But this is understandable, considering the need for secrecy and, well, the fact that the company runs its very own cloud storage service.
But the ban on Windows and Windows Phone devices is something really. And here is hoping that the company opens up a little more when (and if) it starts to develop applications for Microsoft’s flagship platforms in the near future.
Which, let’s face it — the company will have to if both platforms gain substantial market share.
All Comments
Why am I not surprised by anything Google does?
Well for a company that knows its only mainstream competitor, Microsoft, is now behind in the mobile race, this is shall we say expected. Apple and Linux can’t compete with Google in many areas, even if they tried.
Only Microsoft can, and Microsoft is. This is only to be expected from Google, though ultimately users are the ones that get left out int the dark. Windows users looking for official Google apps on Windows 8 and Windows Phone, that is.
That’s the hubristic nature of Google, and Apple too for that matter.
IOW, they had to force their employees to stop using windows.
In truer words, actually.