I guess it was just a matter of time before someone at Microsoft had the brilliant idea, that to catch up with Google, they need to be offering more cloud based applications.  With 500 million global users, the licensing business is  a big business, however you can’t fight big trends and the business model is coming under pressure, particularly in the home and small business environment with free products from Google apps and the world seemingly being a mobile office nowadays.

This month sees the launch of their business based MS Office cloud application and next month it rolls out to consumers.  Not before time I hasten to add.  We can’t ignore the role that Microsoft still plays in our lives, they still dominate the spreadsheeting and presenting spaces with MS Excel and MS Powerpoint, less so, the document side.  Big enterprise relies on Microsoft for its integration with e-mail servers, connecting businesses globally in multiple languages using the same protocols.  You have to admire what they ‘ve achieved in their product development, however they are still way behind the eight ball with their social media integration.  Google is still an irritant, grabbing the headlines, making new innovation, stealing a march, launching cool stuff that everyone wants to talk about.  You can’t ignore some of the recent Microsoft security hacks and patches either, things haven’t been too great of late.

It’s turning into a “David vs. Googleiath” battle of epic proportions.  This latest launch is designed to try and catch up, Google dominate the cloud at the moment, their timing is/and was impeccable.  With $58bn a year of revenue at stake, Microsoft need to find an answer to them.  Let’s see if this latest step, will be welcomed by users and give Google a run for their money.