Oracle launches cloud-based office suites

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Microsoft and Google have a new competitor in the enterprise Software-as-a-Service market, as Oracle recently announced the launch of its Cloud Office 1.0 and Open Office 3.3 productivity suites.

Designed for web and mobile devices, Oracle's Cloud Office is similar to Google Apps and Microsoft's upcoming Office 365. Like its competitors' offerings, the Oracle suite features word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, database and drawing applications.

Oracle claims its Open Office 3.3 suite enables companies to reduce their productivity license cost up to five times compared to Microsoft Office. The software, Oracle stated, integrates with other Oracle solutions, including Business Intelligence and E-Business Suite and is compatible with Microsoft's SharePoint.

Based on an open standard Open Document Format, Oracle says the suites are compatible with legacy Microsoft Office documents and support web 2.0 publishing solutions.

Though initially skeptical of cloud computing, Oracle has apparently embraced the technology in order to stay competitive with Microsoft. With more companies now shifting their business functions to the cloud, this is likely a good move on Oracle's part. According to a recent study by CA Technologies, more than 80 percent of large companies use the cloud for at least one service.