(SHM News) – On Wednesday, Microsoft announced about Office 365 that it is the “first and only major cloud productivity service to comply with leading EU and U.S. standards for data protection and security.”

They stated that it can create a new rivalry between Google and Microsoft. There are other topmost companies as well in the market offering cloud services like Cisco and IBM. However, they are not giving tough challenge to Microsoft like major Google Apps.

The browser based applications are major competitor of Google. They just want to grab the attention of online users. Presently many people are using Google Apps on regular basis and their main target is to let them know about the features of Office 365.

Jean-Philippe Courtois, the president at Microsoft International said “Developing cloud-based productivity tools that meet the needs of European businesses means more than simply building apps in a browser” And then added to the statement that “Microsoft has a more complete approach to European data protection and security laws than any other company, and we’re proud of the work we’ve done to ensure the widest range of organizations can move to the cloud with confidence–or choose an equally functional on-premises option.”

Microsoft offered various tools for small businesses. Their first main club-based service is certified in ISO/IEC 27001 which is a benchmark for security and data management. However, Google Apps are not certified from this but comes under FISMA (Federal Information Security Management Act).

Office 365 includes various online add-ons of Excel, Word, OneNote and PowerPoint. It also combines email access and mobile calendar using exchange server.

Their packages also offer SharePoint for document sharing, intranet, online meeting, video and audio calls and Lync for IM. If you want additional services, you can pay little more money and get email access with Outlook and software of Microsoft Office Professional Plus.

On the other hand, Google Apps contain Spreadsheets, Calendar, Docs, Gmail, Presentations, Groups and intranet sites. You can also get some additional features without using Google Apps like AdWords, Blogger, Reader and Picasa.