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Omission: database features
Microsoft Office includes a very powerful relational database, Access. This is partially available in Office 365 in the form of Access Services - but this specifically removes the relational integrity feature that is at the heart of Microsoft Access. It also has a very high cost of ownership because it requires the use of Sharepoint.

Google Docs has no specific database feature. However, Google Spreadsheet does offer a single-table Query facility which partially compensates for this omission.

Neither Office 365 nor Google Docs offer anything like the power of the desktop Microsoft Access application. This serious omission could be fixed if the products were extended.

Google Docs needs a query, report and form-building frontend to the Google Cloud SQL feature already available in Google App Engine (but not in Google Docs). This is a market opportunity.

Microsoft should find a way to integrate Microsoft Access fully into Office 365.
Posted by mark.gregory@...
7th May 2012