Oracle Cloud Office

Oracle announced a release of the "cloud" Cloud Office 1.0 office suite based on web access of the set of applications for office work which should strengthen the competition in the market in relation to two other solutions enjoying popularity – from Microsoft and Google.

And "cloud" Cloud Office 1.0 is integrated with on-premises the solution Oracle OpenOffice which as it was also announced this week, is updated to version 3.3.

As well as OpenOffice, Cloud Office is based on an open format of the documents ODF (Open Document Format). Its opportunities include work with tables, the text editor, the presentations, also it is compatible to Microsoft Office, Oracle stated.

Clients can use Cloud Office for joint work with documents by means of a web and also for access to them from mobile devices. So far, however, it is not specified what types of mobile devices will be supported.

Thanks to architecture of SaaS Cloud Office it can also be used by corporate users. For legal entities the solution will be delivered in the version of as Cloud Office Professional Edition. The solution will be delivered to private clients in editions Home, Standard and Professional Editions. And Home Edition did not go on sale yet.

Cloud Office will also be available on a subscription worth $40 for one user a year for the version of the Professional Edition and $20 for Standard Edition. The price of a new solution can become a key factor which will warm up its popularity as, for example the competing Google Apps solution of for Business costs $50 a year for one user.

Besides, in the version of Open Office 3.3 such new opportunities as plug-ins for Oracle BI (business intelligence), Oracle E-Business Suite ERP and Microsoft SharePoint appeared.

Though Oracle tries to give the answer to competitors in the field of office applications long ago, perhaps, for the first time the company managed to offer them some powerful alternative. The corporation positions the solution as more flexible and open.

In particular, OpenOffice 3.3 Standard Editions costs $49.95 for one user and is intended for the companies with number of staff from one to 99 people. The version of the Enterprise Edition having much wider functionality and opportunities for work with third-party platforms stands up $90 for the user and is intended for the enterprises numbering from 100 staff.

However, the compatibility with Office is delivered at additional expense. Earlier this year Oracle exposed the price in $90 for each user for ODF a plug-in which allows to exchange files between OpenOffice and Microsoft Office. When the solution was owned by Sun, the plug-in was available free of charge. Nevertheless, Oracle insists on what use of Open Office reduces by 5 times of costs on contents of office applications.