Google Chrome browser now ready to be managed for enterprise
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Hot on the tails of releasing its Chrome OS, Google is adding support for enterprise IT for its Chrome browser.
Google is all about giving options to enterprises.
On Wednesday Google announced that its Chrome browser now “offers controls that enable IT administrators to easily configure and deploy the browser on Windows, Mac, and Linux according to their business requirements,” according to a Google Enterprise blog post.
The Chrome browser (not to be confused with the newly launched Chrome operating system) is Google’s entry into the world of internet browsing options and has been available to the general public across operating systems since 2008. It has not always been a viable option for IT departments because of incompatible Web rendering with certain operating systems (such as Windows XP) and because of security issues.
The offer of customizable Chrome browser features to the enterprise is directly correlated to the launch of the Chrome OS, as Google hopes that its new platform will be widely adopted as an alternative to Windows, Mac and Linux. I lieu of widespread adoption of the Chrome OS, though, it makes sense for Google to optimize the browser to function in any environment that enterprise IT can throw it at and be configured to handle it efficiently and securely.
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“We’ve also added support for managed group policy with a list of policies and a set of templates that allow administrators to easily customize browser settings to manage security and privacy,” Google’s blog said. “For your users that need access to older Web applications not yet qualified for Chrome, we also added group policy support to Google Chrome Frame, an Internet Explorer plug-in that provides Chrome-quality rendering for the broader Web.”
Internetnews.com said that, with the the enterprise Chrome browser initiative, Microsoft installer "lets businesses that use standard deployment tools install Chrome for all their managed users.”
"For most organizations on some version of IE, they typically uninstall the older version as part of an upgrade, but we let you deploy Chrome right alongside," Glenn Wilson, product manager for Google Chrome, told InternetNews.com. "We wanted to make sure Chrome works on an enterprise's existing infrastructure."
The integration of Google software into existing markets has become something of a trend for Google, which recently unveiled a Gmail continuity service for Microsoft Exchange. Google's objective in these moves looks to be to offer IT departments a taste of Google apps functionality so that when the time comes for a new system, Google is a tested alternative to existing products.
Google has tested the enterprise capabilities of the browser as institutions such as Vanguard, Boise State University, Procter & Gamble and, of course, at Google itself. The company said that support for the new administrative features for the Chrome browser will be available through Google Apps For Business.
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