Google CIO Answers Skeptical CIOs About Security
Google CIO Douglas Merrill, in pitching Google Apps to Fortune 100 CIOs, says the most skeptical question he receives is about security: "What is your security model? Is it really as reliable? What's the catch?"
In an interview published in The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday, Merrill explains that Google built a massive infrastructure to run its business. "So," he says, "adding all the enterprise data isn't a big deal.
"I already had to build security standards because search logs are really private," he says. "Very few [Google employees] have access to consumer data, [and those who do] have to go through background checks. We have a rich relationship with the security community, so when people find problems, they tell us. We have more than 150 security engineers who do nothing but security. We don't have a security priesthood: Every engineer is trained. We use automated tools that check every engineer's code.
"We're able to invest in information security in a way that most people aren't. We did it because of search. In some sense, Google Apps is just a byproduct."
In the interview, Merrill, in pitching Google Apps to Fortune 100 CIOs, says the most skeptical quest Merrill says eschews standardizing on most technologies because most employees are technologists. "Google's model is choice," he says. "We let employees choose from a bunch of different machines and different operating systems, and [my support group] supports all of them. It's a little bit less cost-efficient, but on the other hand, I get slightly more productivity from my employees."
And, The Journal's Vauhini Vara asks, "How do you support all of those different options effectively" Merrill responds: "We offer a lot more self-service. For example, let's say you want a new application to do something. You could take your laptop to a tech stop [areas in Google offices where workers can get technical support], but you can also go to an internal Web site where you download it and install the software. We allow all users to download software for themselves."
