Last week the Google Apps Marketplace opened for business. It is a facility for third party developers to add functionality and features to Google Apps, which is a service the web giant offers to business that allow said organizations to harness the power of cloud computing.

Cloud computing is an emerging concept that encourages people to do all their work on the web, instead of desktop computers, and in this case instead of corporate servers or expensive Microsoft Outlook/Exchange/Office systems.

Google Apps combines a number of different services, like gmail for web, google docs for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, calendar, web site publishing, basically all the informational/software needs you would require to run the basics of the company.

Google is also notorious for using a "freemium" model in which the basic level of services are free, but you can pay for a premium level that comes with support, uptime guarantees, no advertising (cause the free model has ads), and other advanced services.

I've been using the free version for years and have found it to be well worth the price. The premium version meanwhile costs $50 per user per year, which is still considerably cheaper than just about any other solution available.

The Google Apps marketplace builds upon this solid foundation by opening up the platform to third party vendors who want to provide/sell added functionality. This is partly inspired by the wild success of the iPhone and its applications that are able to do just about anything imaginable.

Seemingly everyone is now setting up a marketplace or application interface to allow for such 3rd party functionality. Google has been doing this with their phones, and their web browser, and now will also do this with their corporate communications software, i.e. Google Apps.

Some examples include CRM systems, a/k/a customer/client, relationship management systems, as well as accounting software. There are also applications that focus on collaboration, as well as utilities, such as gTrax which was developed by Halifax based Norex.ca, one of the world's leading dev shops focusing on applications for Google's platform(s).

For those of us already using cloud based services like Google Apps, the advantages are clear, and hence why companies like Norex are moving quickly to help others find their opportunities in the cloud.

The reduced cost is an obvious advantage. Often these services are free or a fraction of what you'd pay for running them in your office. This benefits both the consumer of the software, but also the producer, as it gives them an incentive to offer multiple level of pricing, including a free tier, so as to give people the opportunity to try their software. In the cloud this is far easier than the old ways of downloading and installing a demo that might mess up your computer so you were quite likely to just take a pass.

Access and mobility is another great and obvious advantage as you can connect to the cloud from anywhere, access your data, your email, your virtual office from anywhere you are. In many cases this may even eliminate the need for an office entirely, at least one as large as most companies currently maintain.

Another advantage is the evolutionary nature of cloud computing. The software is always improving, always getting better, yet in a way that doesn't leave you locked into older versions. One of the benefits of this approach is it absolves the user of the responsibility to take care of the software, whether install, upgrade, maintain, all of that is taken care of centrally.

Same is true with most security aspects, as well as backups. When done right, cloud computing will offer a more secure and reliable service than running the same stuff yourself.

However the risk is that if done wrong, then you can easily end up in a far worse situation, with increased vulnerability, and decreased stability.

Instead the role and responsibility for security has shifted, so that instead of securing your machines, your securing your access to the cloud. Proper password and access management is a must, as are proper privacy controls.

There's no reason why you can't have greater privacy computing in the cloud, the key is just to use the tools properly and securely. We keep hearing about break-ins into offices to steal physical computers, this potentially prevents that, assuming of course your passwords are secure and changed regularly.

The other potential risk is that without internet access you can be effectively unable to do your work. Therefore it becomes extremely important to make sure you always have access to the internet, including backups, so that you can always get to the cloud that has your data. Though that's also a good habit to have. Productivity in our age often depends on internet access so its a good process to ensure you've always got it.

However we can't forget about Google's long term interest. What's their agenda for seducing us into the cloud? Their mission of course is to organize the world's information and this an important part of that plan. Corporate information accounts for a considerable sum of the world's information, far greater than what is publicly available on the web, and so to get access to that pool of data is part of Google's master plan of being that great "organizer".

Yet on a more practical level this is a competitive play against Microsoft, and some of the other players in the business software industry. While on the one hand Google is undercutting their competitors by providing similar services for a fraction of the price, they are also trying to shift society towards cloud computing, which benefits Google and their massive infrastructure, at the expense of Microsoft, who's power is on the desktop, and their fading Windows monopoly.