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Recently, Todd Pierce made a risky gamble that could have put at risk even their jobs.

To meet the computing needs of 16,300 employees and contractors in Genentech Inc., Pierce ran the risk and decided not to depend entirely on entrepreneurship programs from Microsoft, IBM or other traditional supplier, a conventional model in which the purchasing company becomes the owner of licenses for use.



Instead, Pierce, who is chief technology officer of Genentech Inc., Decided to lease these products are essential to Google Inc.

Google, the search giant of the information and advertising on the Internet, would arrange the e-mail system for Genentech, as well as the programs used in the office, as the word processor, spreadsheet and calendar , And would do all that through a connection "online", a novel called "cloud computing."

The decision has turned Genentech, a pioneer in biotechnology, in a guinea pig for Google and other alternative services software, trying to convince skeptical corporate executives that the "cloud" is a valid and appropriate.

In the process, Google Inc. Downplay expects revenue to Microsoft Corp. And exceed its fierce rival in the struggle to seize control of the programs most commonly used in computation.

The CEO of Genentech, Arthur Levinson, is part of Google's board of directors, but Pierce insists that such links were not the main reason for the transition to cloud computing.

After lengthy internal tests, Pierce became convinced that Google was reliable to provide crucial Genentech software, with such precision as it shows that company to decode the search requests made on the Web and annex them ads.

"You do not want to stay trapped in the past," said Pierce, managing director of informatics at Genentech. "I think we are at the forefront of this trend respect."

Cloud computing has grown into a market of approximately 36,000 million dollars this year, or approximately 13% of the sales of software in the world. The big question now is whether this can become a major technological trend to re obsolete business models of Microsoft and other companies for computer programs.

Despite the uproar that has caused this mode, it will be difficult to break old habits, especially since the powers of enterprise software _ Microsoft, IBM Corp., Oracle Corp.. _ And SAP have reacted to protect their existing business and lucrative software while creating their own online services to compete against emerging companies.

Not even Genentech, the biggest company so far has bought the package of software applications from Google, is poised to leave entirely to Microsoft. Still acquire licenses to use programs such as word processor Word and Excel to create spreadsheets.

Typically, companies are masters of software licenses, which require installing any software on each computer, which are still years of costly maintenance for the technology to continue operating.

In contrast, cloud computing allows someone else to take care of business programs, distance and in exchange for a monthly or annual fee. Users enter the program through connections to the Internet.

The idea was pleased the owners of small businesses, government agencies and schools. Now, the larger companies are beginning to show interest, particularly in the midst of the recession, while looking for ways to save money.

"Almost everyone has a good part of his personal life on the internet and there is no doubt that the future enterprise programs will also be there," said Zachary Nelson, NetSuite Inc. chief. Specialist in computer science. "I just have to see when companies are ready to make this move."

The economics persuaded Genentech. Based on the number of employees who have accounts with Google software, the company's South San Francisco pays at least 800,000 U.S. dollars annually by using the packet based on the internet.

The purchase and maintenance of a similar system from Microsoft, Oracle or IBM would have cost much more, although Genentech declined to say how much has been saved by subscribing to the office suite of Google.

Whatever the figure, the savings do not stop there. Pierce believes that the company would invest between 70 and the final $ 80 million to build a data center full of servers, so that their software worked, and would have had to hire more engineers and technology specialists.

"It's a huge cost that will not generate a million dollars in sales for my company," reasoned Pierce.