When we say “Office in a Cloud”, the first thing you may think of is simply having the usual Office programs – Excel, Word, etc. – hosted on the web instead of on your hard drive.  While this is the case (though some subscriptions to Microsoft Office 365 allow for hard drive downloads of these basic programs), Office 365 promises to greatly expand on this core functionality to make itself an “all in one” solution to your professional consultancy or small business.

Let’s take a look at what Microsoft Office 365 offers over the traditional versions of the program:

Available anywhere:

As with all cloud programs, one of Office 365′s big “claims to fame” is that you can use its services anywhere – on any of your computers (home or work), your mobile devices, your tablet, and much more.  Rather than having to worry about what files and programs are on which computer, now all of your computers are on exactly the same page with one another.

This also means that your Microsoft Exchange data, including contacts, emails and calendars are also always in sync with one another, no matter what platform you’re viewing them on.

Collaborative access:

Let’s imagine that you have an Excel document you’re working on with other people in your business.  In the past, each person would make changes and then email it along to another – a chain that leads to terrible version control issues, errors, and much more.

With Office 365, users can edit Excel spreadsheets with others in real time.  All changes are tracked and documented, so you can always be sure you’re working on the latest version of the Excel file, every time.

Rackspace:

Rackspace is similar to Amazon Web Services – they offer specific cloud based solutions aimed at the technical side of your business (the IT department).  Like Amazon Web Services, they offer flexible pricing plans and server space that can be expanded or contracted in a matter of minutes.

In Conclusion:

Cloud Computing is an exciting area of growth for the technology sector, and we hope these snapshots of the major players have allowed you to get a better handle on what exists currently in Cloud Computing – and a hint of what you can expect in the future!

Google has been working in the cloud space for some time, and is primarily known for their Google Apps programs, which include: Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Docs, Google Sites and much more.

Google argues that cloud computing is the way of the future for a variety of different reasons.  Google Docs, for instance, offers a level of online collaboration not seen in standard software-based solutions.

Google also highlights the big impact that Cloud Computing can have in terms of tweaks to programs.  Quoting from their online blog, “In 2009 alone, we launched over 100 improvements [to our online applications], and customers didn’t need to manage any upgrades or patches”.  The easy-to-update, always evolving approach means that users don’t have to consistently re-learn new software every few years – instead, their knowledge grows slowly and consistently, as the software does.

In Conclusion:

Google has been a major leader in the cloud space, and their leadership is likely to continue as cloud applications continue to become more dominant.

Stay tuned next week for a look at Rackspace, and a perspective on where Cloud Computing is heading.

As Amazon.com grew, it built powerful cloud-based hardware solutions to grow with them.  Amazon Web Services takes this cloud architecture and offers it to businesses across the world.

Amazon Web Services encompasses a number of very specific offerings, and while Microsoft’s cloud solutions are aimed at the consumer level, Amazon Web Services is targeted primarily at the IT provider level.

Like many other cloud providers, Amazon Web Services prides itself on the unique pricing structure of Cloud Computing – subscribers to their services only pay for the capacity that is actually used.

In Conclusion:

If you’re looking at a solid DIY solution to your Cloud needs, Amazon can be a great provider.  However, if you’re looking for a solution that’s ready “out of the box”, you may want to look at a few of our other featured players.

Stay tuned to our blog for more perspectives on other Cloud players like Google and Rackspace.

With so much going on in the cloud space, we wanted to provide a few blog entries designed to help you recognize some of the major players in the industry, and understand what they have to offer.

In this blog entry, we’ll focus on Microsoft.

Microsoft:

Microsoft primarily focuses on two areas in Cloud Computing:

- Microsoft Office 365:

This is the cloud version of Microsoft’s widely used Office suite.  In the cloud version of Office, users are able to access Office from anywhere and on a variety of devices – from smart phones to a work computer to a home laptop.

Office 365 also brings advances to collaboration tools – for instance, 365 users can see each other’s availability for scheduling, or work together through social networking.

- Windows Azure:

Windows Azure is Microsoft’s cloud platform, which provides a wide variety of services.  IT specialists can move a company’s existing applications into the Azure cloud, or develop new web applications using Azure’s proven technology.

In Conclusion:

Microsoft is bringing some of its staple products to the Cloud, and it will be interesting to see how companies move to adopt the new offerings over the next year.

Stay tuned to our blog for more perspectives on other Cloud players like Amazon Web Services, Google and Rackspace.