The web new sites and blogoshpere are full of it, the “titanic” battle between Microsoft and Google for the business Cloud. Google have recently ticked a security box by becoming FISMA approved for their Google Apps suite, but have struggled to meet timelines for implementation and adoption in LA. Microsoft are banging the BPOS / MOS drum pretty loud and ensure us that they are “All in” the Cloud but they seem to have some gaps in their product set and overall delivery strategy. It’s interesting times.
One of the really interesting things is the positioning of Microsoft’s Office Web App suite. This suite brings versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote to the web for general consumption, for free, by anyone who signs up for a SkyDrive account. And it’s pretty good too! I use a lot of Live stuff, including SkyDrive, Sync, Messenger and the web versions of the products are perfectly adequate for the majority of the work most people will need to do. This then, should be the answer to the Google Apps surely? Microsoft have the Office brand to leverage and can pitch Web Apps as the perfect business answer along with BPOS for those wanting to move their investment away from on-site IT real estate and onto “Cloud” services.
The answer of course is no. Of course any individual can sign up to SkyDrive and get Office Web Apps for free, but which corporate IT manager is going to adopt that model. Use of Office Web Apps by a Business requires that the business has already licensed Office 2010 through a volume licensing agreement and then it’s only available as an installation into an internal SharePoint system.
So where does this leave businesses who’s IT spending does not warrant having a Volume Licence Agreement in place? Well simply it leaves them either buying Office 2010 for local installation, not upgrading, or moving to one of the other on-line services and there’s more than one. Google Apps is the nom-de-jour but another service worth a mention is ZOHO and this one is interesting in a couple of ways – it integrates with Google Apps and it supports links to SharePoint.
I like Microsoft Office, I really do, there are some applications in the suite which I simply can’t work properly without, but the idea that I HAVE to make a significant investment in local licensing of the suite the suite to get the benefits of the Webb Applications, only the have those then limited to being installed in-house, well I do wonder who’s being protected in all of this.
But with every issue, comes an opportunity. I wonder who will be the first hoster to market offering an Office Web App platform for Enterprise customers with Volume licensing in place.
