IW500: CIO, Analyst Debate Google Chrome, Outsourcing, Green ComputingIW500: CIO, Analyst Debate Google Chrome, Outsourcing, Green Computing

Does Google Chrome matter? Does Apple have a place in the enterprise? Have businesses done too much offshore outsourcing, or not enough? And should we pay attention to the so-called green computing movement?

In an afternoon session at the information 500 Conference Monday, titled "Get To The Point," information.com Editor-in-Chief Alexander Wolfe threw more than a dozen thought-provoking questions at two highly opinioned business technology veterans: Toby Redshaw, CIO at insurance company Aviva, and Rob Enderle, principal at Enderle Group.

Their answers were blunt, often funny, and frequently in disagreement. Here's a look at some of the exchanges:

information: What is the appropriate place for outsourcing today?

Enderle: There's no magic bullet. ... Different companies require different things. ... The answer for outsourcing is whatever is right for your company.

Redshaw: He's actually right. ...The biggest mistake people make is not getting really aligned with your finance folks, and then they make cost-based decisions. ... You need to consider the total cost of ownership. I frankly think outsourcing has been overdone.

information: Does Google Chrome matter in the enterprise?

Enderle: It's built by a company whose primary focus is to take Microsoft out. ... It's designed to be a front end for their back-end applications and render Windows irrelevant.

Redshaw: It's simple: Competition? Good. ... The real reason to pay attention to Google is its size and distribution. ... [It's] consistently ranked as a best place to work. You get wickedly good people and you can do some really good things.

information: Do social networks, including Facebook and LinkedIn, have a place in business?

Redshaw: Yes. The way business works is you have stuff, things, people, and information. Strategy is about optimizing those four things, and then executing. ... You don't have smarter chairs and carpet than I do, [so] a huge part is smart people collaborating to drive the strategy you created. Gee, that sounds to me like the ability to social network.

Enderle: The difficulty with things like LinkedIn and Facebook is a lot of discussion that should be kept in a company is now migrating outside of it. ... We were supposed to use [Lotus] Notes and are now using external tools to do same thing.

information: Apple in the enterprise -- deal or no deal?

Redshaw: Deal. It's already there. [Apple knows] it's a gigantic market. They have fantastic engineers that build great products. The competition is really not getting the blend between the private day and the workday. You'll see more and more Apple-type stuff. I'm going to roll out iPhones at work.

Enderle: Apple has not embraced the enterprise [because it doesn't share product road maps with business customers, etc.]. ... Here's a company that thinks CIOs are stupid. ... Having a partner that will not treat you as a partner is a bad thing. ...You wouldn't want HP, Dell, or Microsoft to treat you that way.

Redshaw: I don't want to marry them, I just want to use their products.

Enderle: There's a difference between buying a product from a company and letting a company in as a partner.

information: Is there a there-there in green computing?

Redshaw: Yes. A lot of people think it's important. ... There are smart ways to do this that are accretive [and let a business] save money. There's gold in them thar hills. ... I think companies are getting this much more quickly than government that this is truly ... a social imperative. Big companies don't exist in an Adam Smith dog-eat-dog model. They do have social responsibility.

Enderle: Economics drives decisions. Often when economics and green run into each other head to head, green loses. When it makes economic sense, green resonates. When it doesn't, it doesn't.

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