The biotech company Genentech has adopted Google Apps, Sheth notes, despite having to comply with various legal requirements specific to the healthcare field. "You name the vertical, we have a customer in that vertical," Sheth says. "Even in things like financial services and healthcare."

Many of those customers have not publicly admitted they use Google Apps, however. If you go to the Google site that lists , you won't see any in the financial services field.  

But the IT industry is clearly seeing a shift toward cloud computing for many types of applications, particularly those that focus on end user experience. Besides services like Google Apps, Sheth says the proliferation of new types of devices, such as netbooks, tablets and Android phones, will ultimately drive a complete overhaul in the way users interact with their data and applications.

"The way things are going to be in the future is we'll each have multiple devices," Sheth says. "You may have a desktop computer at work, you might have a $200 netbook you carry around, or a tablet computer you carry around to meetings like this. "You may have a mobile device you do a good portion of your work on. Things like Chrome and Android are revolutionizing that. It will give businesses and users a choice of what kinds of devices they want to use. You don't necessarily have to put a laptop onto every desk in your corporation. You as a user don't necessarily have to carry your laptop around wherever you go. You have choices in terms of having the right device for the right setting."

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