Salesforce, a Leader in Cloud Computing, Draws Big Rivals - NYTimes.com

I suspect Google will be surprised to read that Google Apps is “close to” $1B in revenue; Gartner estimates it at considerably less than that

Mr. Benioff, the chief executive of Salesforce, is characteristically pleased with himself. “It’s great that Oracle and SAP are buying cloud companies,” he said, asking, “Do you think it will transform them?”

For Mr. Benioff, who co-founded Salesforce in 1999, the acquisitions are a vindication of his strategy. “Amazon Web Services is making over $1 billion in revenues with cloud software,” he said. “Google Apps is close to that. We’re on track for revenues of $3 billion in 2012. That is $5 billion, and that is what has them worried. Where are SAP, Microsoft, Oracle? Why haven’t they taken our customers?”

Salesforce, a Leader in Cloud Computing, Draws Big Rivals - NYTimes.com