On facebook enterprise

I like the song but not the singer. Enterprise networks will rule the world vacated by MS Office but I doubt facebook will deliver them. It’s rare that a company produces both enterprise and consumer products successfully. Most consumers have never heard of Oracle and most companies have never used Google apps. Microsoft has done it but it is the exception.

The reason is that the two types of customer want radically different things. Corporate users need a high degree of uniformity across the network and usualy integration with existing systems. Individuals usually have a suite of apps stitched together and are much happier to give new things a try.

Facebook’s Chamath Palihapitiya is optimistic but he’s has three problems. One was pointed out to him directly by fellow panelist David Thompson, CEO of Genius which is that ad backed enterprise software will not fly. No sane employer would want sponsored distractions delivered to employees via the software they were using to work. The second is that no developer with the capability of delivering a saleable enterprise network will do it for facebook on the cheap. They would raise their own VC and build it themselves.

The third is facebook’s brand. Its value in the consumer sphere is a liability in the enterprise market. We’re in the early days for enterprise networks so they are still a relatively difficult sell for a CTO. In this case the relative obscurity of Connectbeam or Trampoline Systems is actually an advantage, if he went to his CEO with facebook enterprise the first thing the CEO would think is ‘my kid messes around on that’ and his second would be ‘this guy is nuts’. No CTO will risk looking like an idiot and nobody needs to be superpoked at work. Facebook enterprise is doomed.