Week 3 MIST 7500 - Google Sites

Google Sites is a SaaS (Software as a Service) tool developed by Google in helping to create web pages.  It takes all of the coding away from the average user and allows them to develop a site using out-of-the-box functionality.  It's a great way for a beginner, who is not very familiar with HTML or Scripting to build a fully functional website.

How does Google Sites fit our definition of SaaS?

Unlike Dreamweaver or Frontpage, there is no software to download for Google Sites.  Everything you need is online to build your website, there is no software to install.  All content such as pictures, documents, and anything else you would need to build the site are also stored online. 

What do you like about Google Sites?

It makes building a website fairly easy.  You don't have to know how to write code to build a website using Google Sites, just some basic understanding of how a webpage works and some of the components that make up a webpage.  It's also free and there are no programs, plug-ins, etc. to install.  It's also fully integrated with the other Google products like Google Docs, if you create a Google doc you can easily incorporate that into your site with relative ease.

What do you dislike about Google Sites?

It is a SaaS program so you have to be online to do any development.  Because it is basically OOTB type softare, you are limited in some of the functionality that you have (i.e. Not really recommended for full blown web developers that need more features).  I found it to sometimes be un-intuitive.  Trying to find certain things were difficult or they didn't put like items together for easy access.

How is a SaaS system like Google Sites related to SOA?

SOA or Service Oriented Architecture is defined as:  The policies, practices, frameworks that enable application functionality to be provided and consumed as sets of services published at a granularity relevant to the service consumer. Services can be invoked, published and discovered, and are abstracted away from the implementation using a single, standards-based form of interface.

This definition seems to fit Google Sites fairly well as it is application functionality that is provided as a service.  Many companies are moving to a services based approach which allows them to better serve the needs of the customer.  SOA allows us to determine the usage (delivery, acquisition, consumption, and so on) in terms of, and in sets of, related services.  Google sites is built around this framework in that everything from building the website to publishing it to the web is based on services.