You may have heard about Google’s effort to provide communities unprecedented Internet connectivity speeds of over 1 Gigabit per second.  At this point they’re asking cities to return RFIs (Requests for Information) so they can determine where to build their infrastructure for the trial runs.  A deeper look at their description of the fiber optic trial, dubbed “Google Fiber for Communities” explains their stated reasons for this strategic move.  A primary driving force behind this effort is to provide developers faster speeds in order to accelerate the next generation of app development.

The architecture required for speeds like this doesn’t exist on a large scale today.  In fact, Google will probably not be the first provider to offer these speeds, but they will certainly accelerate innovation.  The bottom line is that it’s clearly a strong push of Google’s Cloud Computing agenda.  If successful, this would provide an incredible catalyst to the SaaS (Software as a Service) industry, which is experiencing historical growth.  With Google Apps Enterprise, Gmail, Google Wave, Google Chrome, Postini and the rest of the franchise, SaaS is something Google knows a little bit about.

ARHD CTO Josh Lippy says “This is part of their grand plan to own the Internet.  By providing 1GB speeds, they’ll be able to push their thin client agenda to the masses.  Chrome operating system and chrome browser for all things computing.”

Google wants to do away with the traditional desktop operating system (that Windows thing), and replace it with a managed service.  Their offering will be an easy to purchase streaming thin client desktop service, most likely paid for based on usage.  The speeds Google is pursuing are the only way to ensure success.  Cloud Computing will take incredible leaps with that kind of speed, not to mention they could start offering television programming with that kind of throughput.  Is there a Google channel yet?

You can go to Google and search for “Google fiber” to learn more.