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To the Cloud

November 22, 2010 19:00:35.046

Google's cloud strategy is now solidly in the enterprise zone:

Today, Google is launching a new plugin for Microsoft Office called Cloud Connect, which will tie Google Docs directly into the ubiquitous productivity suite, free of charge. Editing a document in Word? It’ll automatically sync to your Google Docs account each time you hit ‘Save’. Want to share a preview of your document without worrying about what file format your coworkers can open? Just send them a link to the Google Docs file. The plugin supports Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and Excel, and it’s a big deal for Google’s strategy with Docs.

You have to wonder how Microsoft feels about that. On the one hand, it does plug into their tools; on the other hand, it gives a nice glide ramp off those tools and over to the Google suite - which is free for the small/home end, and very inexpensive for the enterprise side. If nothing else, the price points MS charges for Office should start coming under real pressure...

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posted by James Robertson

Comments

I Doubt It

[W^L+] November 23, 2010 13:02:51.230

In an enterprise, inertia is more important than anything else, including price. Most of them will be MSOffice-only (even if some go for this online docs plugin) until and unless Microsoft gets out of the office suite business.

The only conceivable thing that would change that is if licensing costs threatened the CEOs' salaries.

Re: To the Cloud

[James Robertson] November 23, 2010 15:41:29.869

Not so very long ago, you might have said the same thing about mainframes and terminals...

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