It is almost second nature, for some actors in the computer industry, to try and create populations of captive customers by making migration to a competitor's solution as difficult as possible. Most often they do so by all technical, financial, and legal means imaginable.
Google, on the contrary, is betting on retaining its customer in the long run. It therefore tries to earn their trust by letting each of them leave Google solutions for solutions of its competitors when they wish. This is reflected in the rather unusual approach of the Data Liberation Front, a group of Google engineers whose goal since 2007 has been to make the move to other non-Google solutions as easy, cheap and smooth as possible, especially regarding data migration!
Not surprisingly, the Data Liberation Front encourages users to be alert before choosing any SaaS solution and to ask themselves the following three questions:
- Will I be able to retrieve my data easily if I wish to abandon this service?
- How much will the retrieval operation cost me?
- How much time will I have to spend on this?
As far as Google services are concerned, and more specifically for the Google Apps that we shall discuss extensively in this book, the Data Liberation Front proposes practical information for the best way to retrieve data (or to enter them).
On the Data Liberation Front site: the menu on the left allows selection of a Google service; the central part provides explanation of how to retrieve data from the application. The "revolutionary iconography" suggests the unusual or even subversive aspect of the approach.
T he mission that the Data Liberation Front has set for itself is an ongoing process. According to the team, the process is currently about two thirds complete.