Out of this thin straw, Google is spinning a golden tale of a low-cost entry into the enterprise market, and Salesforce.com a move against Microsoft, which has been touting the integration of its rival business-software suite, Dynamics, with Microsoft Office.

Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff is honest in his own way about matters. "The enemy of my enemy is my friend, so that makes Google my best friend," Benioff told the New York Times. A Microsoft executive countered with the meaningless Valley bromide, uttered whenever a rival emerges: "It validates our strategy." He would have done better if he had simply laughed.