The Cloud. 'Nuff said.

Forget meteorology, and think virtualization. Cloud computing is finally becoming a significant part of our lives.  Microsoft, in particular, is certainly making sure of that. Introducing the new, dynamically scalable, over-the-internet productivity suite Microsoft Office 365 available in the early 2011 completely through a cloud computing environment! Consider the business world transformed. Now, employees of any company around the world will easily be able to communicate, collaborate, and get their work done from anywhere around the world. With an entire suite of Microsoft products available to employees over the internet through a simple log in process (without a software install of any kind), work will go very smoothly - too bad offering the service is such a gamble for Microsoft. Many companies still either don't know or simply refuse to believe that cloud computing is safe and reliable, so many will not risk their sensitive information for the service. Also, marketing the service as a subscription may actually end up hurting Microsoft. After a little bit of math, it's clear that buying traditional software licenses works out to be cheaper in the long run. So, why pay for the subscription? Microsoft's competition is also tough. Google offers a similar service called Docs for free. In combination with Gmail, Google Docs is a solid choice for any company interested in these kinds of services. We will have to wait and see how MS Office 365's success plays out, but in the mean time, I wish them the best of luck, for it this thing works, it could become a $25 billion dollar per year business by 2013.