IBM's free Symphony desktop software has a good chance of becoming a hosted service that would <A HREF="http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,2214722,00.asp?kc=EWRSS03119TX1K0000594">challenge Google Apps,</A> according to an IBM official. The suite, which let users create documents, spreadsheets and presentations, would eventually include live collaborative editing and online shared storage in the cloud, similar to the way Google positions its suite, Doug Heinzman, director of strategy for IBM collaboration, said in an interview Nov. 9.

The proposition is an indication of how serious traditional vendors view SAAS (software as a service), which Google and Amazon like to call cloud computing, that lets people consume software that is supported by the vendors' servers.