Many observers agree that Google is really in one business and whether we call it advertising or search they’re one and the same from a revenue perspective. By contrast, Steve Ballmer has talked recently about Microsoft’s success at building several multibillion dollar software businesses and how long it takes to do that. We built a desktop OS business, an application business and an enterprise business. We’re building an entertainment business and also an online and services business. It’s therefore interesting to read Matthew Glotzbach from Google talk in CIO about their enterprise business and aspirations to build “Google's second-largest business”.

There is no question that Google is serious about this but contrary to what some observers would have you believe, it aint gonna happen overnight. That’s not to say Microsoft is complacent about Google as a very strong and smart adversary but I think the industry may see just how hard it is to diversify, and stay cool, and make money and keep your talent.

Just one thing to think about that is well covered in this post titled The Geopolitical Cloud – in the enterprise world, the location of data starts to get very important indeed so a consumer based cloud may well not suit both worlds. It’s a challenge for those wishing to offer cloud computing services to consumers and enterprises at the same time so count Google, Microsoft and several others in that space.

On a related note I enjoyed John’s Top 10 Reasons for NOT Using a Cloud