Microsoft Still Lagging in Terms of In-the-Cloud Applications Development

With Google’s development of their in-the-cloud applications and even operating system, they still have to stand up to industry contenders such as Apple and Microsoft who have captured a huge part of the market over the past decades. Google and Microsoft are contenders in most all levels which range from operating systems, office applications, browsers, and search engines. The biggest difference is, Google has a good window into the future and has seen the future in online connectivity.

In the computer industry, especially software and OS development, only one name stands out, and that is Microsoft. But according to the Enterprise Division President of Google, Dave Girouard, he is anticipating facing Microsoft as a competitor at all levels and far exceeding everyone’s expectations (including Microsoft’s) in office apps.

Girouard explains that Google Docs is just a single component in Google’s overall strategy, and a larger suite of applications, that will allow consumers to do work online smoothly and seamlessly, no matter where they are in the world. This means developing apps that are easy to use (to cater to the wider audience of non-techies) and apps that are lighter and faster too. Today, everything is about speed, and if you are working, time is really money when it comes to getting things done.

Currently, the known number of apps making up Google apps is nine. But Google has been developing a suite of apps that it anticipates on releasing later in 2010 which include nifty apps like Google Reader and Picasa. Basically, the entire Google Apps suite that is expected at the end of this year should contain 90 applications. Applications will standardize to each other, so you can actually pull jpegs out of Picasa and bring them straight to Google Docs for layout as part of a report. A lot of the development has involved IT administrators and users who make up a huge part in the testing and structural design of Google services and accounts.

Google Apps was introduced in 2007 and Google developers have seen more businesses (approximately two million) using their products than ever before, and daily there are additional businesses that sign up that reach 3,000 every single day. To date, there must be at least 25 million users of Google apps worldwide. Girouard has noticed that Fortune One Thousand companies use Google Apps religiously, and the number of employees for these kinds of companies have employee numbers that reach past tens of thousands.

Of course, Microsoft will always be Google’s top competitor, with others that include IBM and Cisco. But Girouard finds that Google has an edge when it comes to cloud computing. Google has a chance to be ahead of the game in terms of online applications development. Microsoft has been successful in the past decades when it comes to software apps, office apps, and operating systems. Maybe in the near future, Google will begin to capture a larger market in it’s own in-the-cloud niche.

But the competition isn’t ending there for Microsoft. In fact, Microsoft too is coming out with its own suite of office applications that will be cloud-based. But their biggest obstacle is their mindset when it comes to software licensing which is their own traditional niche. Breaking away from that may cause a lot of changes that don’t necessarily mean they are for the better. As for Google – they have already started, they are recognized, and are currently ahead of the game so far in cloud-based applications. They may have too much of a head start right now for anyone else to pass them anytime soon.