Google, the cloud & Microsoft Online

It’s been a busy week for discussion on cloud computing and the merits of putting your faith in web based tools. Infoworld asked Can Google Apps move up market? and earlier this week Google Docs suffered over 30 minutes of downtime. It prompted ReadWriteWeb to create an online poll asking how much downtime it would take for people to stop using the service. The results when I checked (above) are quite telling – I’d say people aren’t quite ready to put their faith in a pure online service. That’s why Microsoft thinks a Software plus Services approach is the right one. You get the best of both worlds.

This isn’t a slight against Google particular but more an observation that the battleground of cloud computing is in its infancy. Merrill Lynch Estimates "Cloud Computing" To Be $100 Billion Market by 2011.

The announcements this week around Microsoft Online are a first salvo in what promises to be a whole new era here at Microsoft. Let the games commence!