There are plenty of people talking about cloud computing, hosted apps, and Google Apps, but not that many documenting the process in the enterprise, except for soundbyte-ready “We saved thousands of dollars!” testimonials.  I thought I’d share some of the highs and lows of implementing Google Apps, especially Google Docs, in a non-web enterprise with thousands of users.

There will be both raves and complaints, but mostly just decision-making quandaries, as this stuff is so new, both culturally and product-wise.  I’m a big fan of Google Apps, and would recommend it to any type of organization, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t tons of challenges and improvements to be made by Google, 3rd party tools providers, and even us users.

When it comes to adopting emerging web tools, industry coverage typically represents two extremes:  hip private companies and independents who embrace the chaos, and archaic giants who fail to recognize the value of  web productivity tools, are overcome by fear and conservatism, and are handicapped by (perceived?) regulation.  

Many organizations don’t fit in either of those buckets. Most of us work in organizations with people of varying degrees of literacy and enthusiasm about cloud apps.

I’ll write about having a cloud initiative in a thousands-of-employees public company that has: people wildly enthusiastic about 3rd party cloud computing, hostile gatekeepers, and most plentiful, people who don’t necessarily care either way, but who need to get on board for any initiatives to move forward.

I’m going to take you on a magic ride.

Stay tuned for posts about wishlists, gold-stars, and shoulda-woulda-coulda’s.