CRM company launches Marketing Cloud, Touch for tablets, Dropbox competitor as rivals circle. UPDATED with comment from Andy Lark.

New Zealand included in global launch of Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online launch today; company looks to buy market share.

Yesterday, Microsoft New Zealand officially launched Azure, a new “cloud” version of Windows, tackling tricky price and trust issues head on.

Under a cloud setup, your software, and your data, is hosted not within your own network but at a data centre in the cloud (that is, accessed via the internet; in this case, one run by Microsoft in the US or Singapore). You can rent computing power, and storage – or ditch it – as required.

Time was when other software and hardware companies would line up to praise Microsoft’s latest upgrade.

And Microsoft does have some friends turning out today - notably HP - which is co-hosting launch events in Auckland and Wellington. Sony also began to promote its line-up of Windows 7 laptops last night.

Others were less welcoming.

Reps from customer relationship management (CRM) giant Salesforce.com were last night dutifully forwarding a missive from the company’s chief executive, Marc Benioff, trashing Microsoft’s new OS.

All SaaS (software-as-a-service) companies are saying their rent-your-software-over-the-internet model is more attractive during a recession, and more attractive than hosting programmes in-house full-stop.

At Salesforce.com, the grand-daddy of SaaS, its bottom line is backing up the spiel.