Microsoft's director of the information worker business group, Oscar Trimboli, said was set to knock Google off its perch through its integration of familiar applications in the Cloud.

"What they [users of Google Apps] find is that they think the definition of success is being able to use email and documentation," he said. "But as soon as they move to Google, they find they want something richer and with more depth."

Founder of small business Rookie Recruits, Andy Springer, spoke at the launch, saying that while he was initially a Google Apps user, he moved to Microsoft's Cloud offering not long after.

"We investigated Google Apps and started the migration process and within a couple of days, our users were saying that the features they were using previously weren't available," Springer said. "Within 24 hours we found a partner [in Microsoft] and moved to the Cloud."

While Microsoft's Trimboli touted 365 as being as bring "the price of a sandwich", he did concede that customer data will be housed offshore at Microsoft's data centre in Singapore.