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Why CIOs aren't on the Chrome straight
Analysis: The hurdles ahead for Google's vision

By Tim Ferguson

Published: Friday 03 October 2008

... market share and advantages to using Chrome to initiate a switch."

Nic Evans, European IT director, Key Equipment Finance, raised the same problem, saying that too many of his company's business applications are only certified for use with IE, meaning it will be a while before any alternative is considered.

It's not just the Microsoft effect that's putting CIOs off Chrome.

Nicholas Bellenberg, IT director for publisher Hachette Filipacchi UK, said his company won't be moving to Chrome as it's not yet compatible with Linux and Mac operating systems.

Unlike many businesses Hachette Filipacchi is not being stopped by any attachment to Microsoft, as Firefox is already its browser of choice.

For Andrew Jackson, head of IT at B2B media group, Huveaux, stability is also proving an issue in Chrome adoption.

"We're still concerned about the technology involved as it's become apparent that even if, as Google claim, the tabs run in separate memory space, there are still vulnerabilities that can crash all of the browser sessions at once," he said.

Jackson added Google should have provided more support to web development teams to allow them to deal with the impact of the new browser more easily.

For other organisations, the security of Chrome is a concern. Andrew Watson, British Transport Police CIO, said: "We are not testing Chrome - partly because the internet is such a potential security risk, we would take our steer off of CESG [the government agency which approves public sector tech]about its suitability for use in secure government environments."

It seems Chrome's lustre is not enough for businesses who have to consider a range of issues that the browser doesn't yet cater for before making such a fundamental technology switch.