MS, Google step-up cloud battle
Google and Microsoft are trying to get businesses to lease its hosted versions of essential communications and office programs, instead of maintaining these basic programs in-house. This digital outsourcing often is called cloud computing.
Microsoft recently released an almost-final test version of its Office 365, but Google recently unveiled Chromebooks, stripped-down computers optimised to run its hosted messaging, calendaring and collaboration tools.
“At Microsoft, for the cloud, we're all in,” Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer told an auditorium full of University of Washington computer science students last spring. “It's just a great time to be all-in and really drive the next generation of technology advances.”
Tuned for the Internet, Office 365 extends the slow-but-steady advances the company has been making since 2002 in delivering business programs over the Web, much as a utility delivers water or electricity.
“Chromebooks is actually a huge leap forward for cloud computing,” says Dave Girouard, Google's president of enterprise.
“We're excited about putting more pieces of the puzzle together. Our aim is to be number one in cloud computing.”
Delivering software over the Internet is nothing new. Cloud computing occurs when an individual accesses services housed on a third-party server rather than a local PC. Consumers use cloud computing with free Web mail services and popular social-networking sites.
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