Introducing the Modern Computing Alliance: The best way to predict the future is to build it
By John Solomon, Google VP, Chrome
OS
December 11, 2020
If the last two
decades have taught us anything, it’s that things—especially
technology—move pretty fast. As an industry, technology
providers have done a fantastic job developing new hardware
and software products to make sure people can keep up, and
get ahead. However the user experience is defined not only
by the innovation of the building blocks themselves, but
also increasingly by how systems work together.
As more and more
of our lives—and our businesses—move to the cloud, there is
an increasing need to look across the full technology stack,
from silicon to the cloud, and in fact an exciting
opportunity to redefine technology systems and stacks as a
whole, and how they work in the interconnected,
internet-first world we’re living in. The technology
industry is moving towards an open, heterogeneous ecosystem
that allows freedom of choice while integrating across the
stack. This reality presents both a challenge and an
opportunity. To address
the complexity of this challenge requires a new level of
collaboration in the form of an industry-wide effort.
Technology leaders have to work together in new ways to
develop open solutions that transcend products or brands any
individual might envision, and create a better, more
optimized experience for everyone. Today, we’re
excited to announce Google’s membership in the Modern
Computing Alliance - to address the biggest IT
challenges facing companies today with integration from
silicon to cloud. Working with a group of forward-thinking
industry leaders, we’re aligning standards and technologies
to provide companies with the choice of high-performance,
cloud-first computing solutions from the vendor of their
choice who provide modern solutions for the modern era of
business. Our collective mission: To drive
‘silicon-to-cloud’ innovation for the benefit of enterprise
customers—fueling a differentiated modern computing platform
and providing additional choice for integrated business
solutions. A strong
alliance needs members who bring unique perspectives to the
table. The founding members of the Modern Computing
Alliance include some of the most innovative companies and
products across the silicon-to-cloud stack: Box,
Citrix,
Dell,
Imprivata,
Intel,
Okta,
RingCentral,
Slack,
VMware,
and Zoom will be joining Chrome browser, Chrome OS, and
Google Workspace.
Redefining modern computing together
'Modern computing' can mean many
different things to different people. For
me, it’s creating an integrated, secure
experience on any device, from anywhere. A
means of achieving this cross-device app
experience is by employing enterprise
progressive web applications (PWAs) that are
faster and more responsive than native
legacy solutions. In addition, developers
only have to build once and can distribute
without a gateway, so they can get their
products to market sooner and more
efficiently. These best practices will allow
for a shift to a collaborative workforce
with cloud-first cultures and devices,
providing IT ease of management and insights
on a stack that is fully integrated. The
truth is, it's all of these things. And
more.
Developing an integrated roadmap for the
future
The question is no longer, “will we move
to the cloud?” It’s “how fast?” And 2020 has
pushed the accelerator all the way to the
floor. We kicked off these efforts, because
of direct customer feedback - help us
accelerate our move to the cloud, provide us
a better integrated choice, and prepare us
for the uncertainty of the future.
That’s why the Modern Computing Alliance is
committed to developing an integrated
roadmap that makes the best use of our
collective experience, insights, and
expertise while giving us a clear path
forward to improve customer choice and the
enterprise computing market.
Hospital environments are fast-paced and
healthcare workers don’t stay in a single
place (or on a single device) for very long.
The Alliance will build solutions with fast
user switching for clinicians and ensure
everyone is able to access all of the
information they need, from anywhere,
seamlessly and securely—with support for
electronic prescription of controlled
substances (EPCS) workflows built-in.
While only a few examples, that’s plenty to
keep us busy, but it’s not the end of the
road. To build a modern computing system
that meets the needs of businesses across
the stack, we’re going to need some help.
A call for IT professionals: Join us as
we drive the next wave of innovation
The Alliance members are all in place
and ready to get to work, but there’s one
essential voice missing: yours. We need IT
champions like yourself to be a part of the
newly founded Modern Computing IT Council,
to help us shape the next era of innovation.
If you’re passionate about the possibilities
of modern computing, please join us to make
your voice heard.
As we continue to develop our roadmap, input
from decision makers like you will help us
stay focused on the solutions you need most.
Join the Modern Computing IT Council today
to help us make the future of computing
exactly what you want it to be. We're
excited to share some early innovations from
the Alliance in the first half of 2021
Our plan is to take on the most pressing
challenges in end user computing today,
including:
If that sounds ambitious, it’s because
it is. But it’s entirely doable. As an
example, we can (and will) improve the
quality of video and audio experiences
in native PWAs by leveraging
hardware-based capabilities and platform
optimizations to provide exceptional
performance across the entire vertical
stack.
Now that we’re living—and working—in a
globally interconnected world, increased
protection and enhanced reporting is a
must. Our security and identity
solutions will enable tighter controls
and smarter permissions, so IT teams can
easily use and manage much stronger and
better-integrated cloud data security
and data loss prevention tools.
Employees need better workflows to make
the most of their tools and their time.
IT needs transparency, simplified
administration, and analytics for both
users and devices that they can access
from anywhere. The solutions we build
will provide silicon-to-cloud telemetry
insights and analytics (which is a fancy
way of saying the data is recorded on a
remote device and then automatically
transmitted for visibility) along with
recommendations on how to optimize
workflow experiences and automate
repetitive tasks, to facilitate improved
system efficiency.
Benefits of joining the Modern Computing IT
Council include:
