Google Versus Microsoft: The Fight for the Future of Cloud Computing

ORLANDO, Fla. – When it comes to building out cloud computing infrastructures in the next two years, two of the world’s largest and most formidable IT companies – Google and Microsoft – are preparing to pour money and resources into developing significantly different models of how this type of computing should look and feel.

While it’s not surprising that Google and Microsoft are preparing to clash in other fields besides search and advertising, the two companies’ attitudes toward the cloud and the different approaches were dissected at the Gartner Symposium/ITxpo here.

At its most basic, cloud computing offers customers the ability to have their applications supported by third-party vendors and those applications are then delivered to the user through the Internet. Enterprises, such as Amazon, Google and Microsoft, can also develop their own cloud computing infrastructures for their internal applications.

While the cloud is still a somewhat undefined area, the types of technology that Google and Microsoft are developing could shift the way businesses, and even consumers, use the cloud for their needs. Part of this clash for the future of the cloud comes from the different business models that Google and Microsoft developed. While Microsoft has worked mainly in the enterprise and built its reputation on its operating systems and offerings such as the Office suite, Google has been more consumer focused and has relied on advertising revenue to bolster its search capabilities.

In the case of Microsoft, David Smith, a Gartner Fellow, believes that Microsoft is looking to become a force in both the internal cloud, which businesses will build to support their own applications and computing resources, and the external cloud, which are developed by third-party service providers such as AT&T.

“With Microsoft, the goal is to support both in a sort of hybrid model that takes advantage of both models,” said Smith. “Virtually all Microsoft software until recently, especially for enterprises, has been either client-based or on-premise software. However, they are gradually moving much of that to a cloud offering.”

The evidence of that shift in strategy, Smith said, is a number of new products Microsoft has brought into the market or will bring in the coming years. These include Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online, Live Mesh and platforms such as “Oslo” and “Titan.”

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