Microsoft may be about to launch a new licensing framework for Office applications in the cloud
Under a new license called "union, Microsoft would charge enterprises the same for software whether it is hosted on-premises or in the cloud.
The new license would help reduce complexity for organisations with Microsoft licensing still one of the hardest areas for businesses to track and leverage. There could come a time where heavy application users run Office locally and light touch users run in the cloud similar to the BPOS hybrid approach.
Sources have said that the union license would either apply to Microsoft Office run locally and hosted on Windows Azure, or to Exchange and SharePoint, which Microsoft offers in software and hosted form.
Paul DeGroot, an analyst with the independent research firm, Directions on Microsoft, said "union" could be a new bundle that combines Office 2010 (on-premise) with Office Web Apps and, to store the data from the latter, SharePoint Online.
Its going to be interesting to see where this one ends up, there is no doubt they have to tackle Google Apps and the new Zimbra acquisition from VMware.