Google, Sun Microsystems and Workplace Continuity

A couple of weeks ago, we took a break from the fallout of Katrina to discuss the rise of Google. We, like others, speculated about what Google had up its sleeve to further its dominant position and suggested that because they were in the midst of hiring a bunch of OS guys they could very well be developing an operating system for the internet at a very powerful level, and much the way Microsoft did for PCs.

Well, they got a little closer this week as it was announced on Tuesday that Google and Sun Microsystems struck a strategic alliance to apparently go head to head with Microsoft's Office software. One of the things we were speculating quite plainly spelled out here:

Eventually, the partnership could lead to Google offering word processing, spreadsheet and collaboration tools that would compete with Microsoft's industry-leading Office suite of software.

Powerful office tools available anywhere there's an internet connection? Working on an anywhere, anytime basis? Seems as though more pieces in the Workplace Continuity puzzle are coming together.