CIO Article: Why Microsoft will beat Google in the enterprise cloud war

According to this article on CIO.com,  Microsoft will beat Google in the enterprise cloud space because Office 365 is better accepted by large enterprise customers, while customers in the small business space are still happy with Google Docs for Business.  

It makes sense.  Microsoft had such a dominant presence with their desktop office applications with large businesses for decades.  As soon as they introduced the multi device and collaboration capabilities provided with the cloud, those customers found it easier to stick with what they had been using in the past.   Google is still strong with the small business market who switched to them earlier.  They were most likely trying to avoid Microsoft price premiums in the first place which is why they adopted the free Google Docs service.   Enterprise customers were already accustomed to paying the Microsoft fees.  Trust and security issues prevented them from  allowing their users to switch to the new services Google was offering.   Now that Microsoft has the competitive Office 365 platform, there is no longer reason for them to consider switching.

The question is, will Google be able to introduce enough unique features to win over loyal Microsoft customers?  I can't wait to see their next move.

Fortune Article: Google's Secret Plan to Catch Up to Amazon and Microsoft in Cloud

Fortune Magazine recently published an article explaining Google's plan to compete with Amazon and others in the cloud.  They say they've got their work cut out for them since last year Gartner estimates showed that Amazon Web Services is running with 10 times the capacity of it's next 14 cloud competitors combined.

They showcase how Google is building an infrastructure comparable to Akamai and is partnering with the Content Delivery Network leader to enhance both company's capabilities.  They also have put former VMWare CEO in charge of their cloud unit which should help them be more competitive.

But Google has struggled to cloud services to business users mainly because they haven't had the history of selling through a channel to these kinds of accounts in the same way that Microsoft or IBM has had and without those relationships, it's an uphill battle to win the their trust.  They've had to play the price game to attract new customers and that's never a winning strategy when dealing with competitors with a larger footprint or better relationship with clients.

Obviously, Google has a tremendous amount of technical know how and a very lucrative cash flow from their search and advertising businesses to fund a tremendous amount of R&D and make strategic investments to help them catch up with Amazon and Microsoft. so this battle is just beginning.