The Second Coming of Microsoft?

Tonight, Bill Gates and Ray Ozzie (CTO) will inaugurate the Second Coming of Microsoft by announcing a sharp change of tack. Software-as-a-service is the new buzz-phrase.

Initially, this may be fairly mundane stuff, like Software Assurance or partially-hosted services. But the word is that Microsoft means to challenge Google at Google’s game, what’s come to be called, Web 2.0.

Insiders talk of a “hosted Office” and “hosted Everything”. If necessary, they say, it will be done with “brute force” before a “more elegant” solution can be found in the long term.

Well, we’re all agog for this one. It could be the story of the week. Or the story of the decade. Stay tuned.

[Via Ross Mayfield]