????雖然聽起來可能不像搜索、網頁瀏覽器或手機那樣吸引人，但將各種各樣的辦公應用程序轉移到云端的需求在不斷增長。正因為如此，本周二早晨，微軟（Microsoft）發布了萬眾期待的在線生產力工具套件Office 365（它可謂業界最公開的秘密）。同時微軟也在尋求一些大型電話公司的支持，向客戶推銷Office 365，這些公司與谷歌（Google）的關系有時并不和諧。

????出于同樣的原因，本周更早些時候，谷歌搶先發布了一篇咄咄逼人的博客，標題為“365個選擇谷歌應用程序（Google Apps）的原因”。

????谷歌商業應用程序專為企業級用戶定制，包括Gmail、谷歌日歷、谷歌文檔以及其它基于網絡的應用程序，可謂Office 365最大的對手。谷歌應用程序產品經理沙恩?辛哈表示，谷歌的應用程序在各種不同操作系統和設備上的表現更出色，相比微軟Office 365，谷歌提供的定價方案更為簡潔而且價格也更低廉。

????周一，辛哈在一篇公司博客里寫道，“不能光使用傳統的桌面軟件，把其中一些遷移到我們稱之為‘云端’的數據中心里去吧?！?/p>

????真是太棒了。不過，雖然和位于加州山景城的競爭對手谷歌相比，微軟似乎因循守舊、不思進取而且死抓桌面系統不放，但它在企業市場領域的經驗要比谷歌豐富得多。微軟正借助Office 365向市場發起猛烈進攻，特別是在中小企業領域。

????微軟宣稱過去幾個月，有20萬測試客戶注冊了Office 365，其中70%是中小企業。對于許多資金不足的企業和政府機構而言，購買基于云端的工具（與管理本地服務器相比）更有吸引力而且成本也更低。微軟Office 365的起始價為每月每用戶6美元，而谷歌應用程序的定價方案只有一種，每月每用戶5美元。

????那么微軟打算如何吸引更多的中小企業客戶呢（同時防止它們叛逃到谷歌去）？答案是強大的代理渠道。微軟目前正與沃達豐集團（Vodafone Group）、日本電話電報公司（NTT）、西班牙電信（Telefonica）等20家全球性電信公司合作，將Office 365捆綁到它們的通信服務中去。

????在最近一次采訪中，微軟運營商渠道集團副總裁馬爾科?利蒙在《財富》雜志（FORTUNE）采訪時稱：“我們的方法與（谷歌）截然不同。我們和電信公司的合作已經持續了很多很多年。隨著我們向云世界挺進，對于微軟一般的分銷渠道而言，電信公司扮演的角色將越來越重要?！?/p>

????作為Office 365的代理商之一，沃達豐表示已將微軟在線服務（Microsoft Online Services，微軟第一代基于云端的應用程序）與自己的企業級語音和數據套餐綁定。代理商的全球化布局和現有的客戶基礎將力助微軟對抗谷歌。

????話說回來，雖然微軟竭盡全力將自己打造成一家云計算公司，但它仍然只是云端應用程序領域的新手。Office 365的多重定價方案很復雜（但從好的方面來看，這為不同規模的公司提供了更多選擇）。而且如果Office 365真的成功了，那它可能會與微軟傳統的Office軟件同室操戈，后者目前的利潤仍然相當豐厚。

????針對微軟發布Office 365，谷歌應用程序產品經理辛哈在最近發布的一篇博客中寫道，“隨著技術不斷成熟，它不可避免地變得越來越復雜。在這種情況下，我們應該考慮全新的方案：一種完全基于現代技術的方案，專為現代社會量身打造?！?/p>

????不過微軟和谷歌目前都面臨著相同的挑戰：即便當今社會已經充分網絡化，但仍然有許多公司就是不愿意將最敏感的文件轉移到云端。

????譯者：項航

????It may not sound quite as sexy as search, web browsers or mobile phones, but there's growing demand for moving all sorts of office applications to the cloud. That's why, Tuesday morning, Microsoft took the wraps off of its long-awaited Office 365, a suite of online productivity tools (and one of the worst-kept secrets in the industry). And it is enlisting big phone companies, which have had a sometimes uneasy relationship with Google, to help it get the tools in the hands of customers.

????That's also why, earlier in the week, Google pre-empted the launch with a snarky blog post titled "365 reasons to consider Google Apps."

????Google Apps for Business includes Gmail, Google Calendar and Docs and other web-based applications geared for corporate customers and is the biggest threat to Office 365's success. According to Shan Sinha, Google Apps product manager, his company's applications work better across different operating systems and devices, and come with a simpler and more affordable pricing plan than Microsoft's Office 365.

????"You can't just take legacy, desktop software, move some of it to a data center and call it 'cloud,'" Sinha wrote in a company blog on Monday.

????Ouch. But while Microsoft (MSFT) may seem old and stodgy and desktop-centric compared to Google (GOOG), it has a lot more experience catering to corporate customers than its Mountain View, Calif.-based rival. With Office 365, it's making an aggressive push for small and medium businesses in particular.

????Microsoft says 200,000 beta customers signed up for Office 365 over the last few months. About 70% of those customers were small- and medium-sized businesses. Paying for hosted, cloud-based tools (as opposed to managing on-premise servers) is attractive and cost-effective for many cash-strapped companies and government agencies. Microsoft's Office 365 starts at $6 per user per month, while Google Apps costs a flat $5 per user per month.

????So what's Microsoft's plan to attract more small and medium business customers (and halt defections to Google)? A strong reseller channel. The company is partnering with about 20 international telecommunications companies—including Vodafone Group (VOD), NTT (NTT) and Telefonica (TEF)—to bundle Office 365 with their communications offerings.

????"What we do is dramatically different [than Google]," Marco Limena, VP of the operator channels group at Microsoft, told FORTUNE in a recent interview. "We've been doing business with these companies for many, many years. And telcos are becoming more and more central to general distribution channels for Microsoft as we move to the cloud."

????Vodafone, one of the companies that will resell Office 365, says it already bundles Microsoft Online Services (the first-generation of the company's cloud-based apps) with its voice and data plans for businesses. The global reach and existing customer base of its reseller partners could help Microsoft in its fight against Google.

????Then again, despite its best efforts to rebrand itself as a bonafide cloud player, it's still early days for Microsoft's foray into web-based applications. Office 365's multi-tiered pricing plan is complicated (on the plus side, it could offer more choice for different sized businesses). And if it does succeed, Office 365 could risk cannibalizing its still hugely profitable traditional Office software suite.

????"Technology inevitably gets more complicated as it gets older," Sinha, the Google Apps product manager, wrote in the recent blog post on the Office 365 launch. "...At times like these, it's worth considering a clean-slate: an approach based on entirely modern technologies, designed for today's world."

????But here's one challenge both Microsoft and Google will have to overcome--even in today's web-centric world, some corporate customers simply aren't comfortable porting their most sensitive documents to the cloud.