Google is about to officially launch a corporate version of productivity software that will directly challenge Microsoft's ubiquitous Office suite, according to BusinessWeek.

Googe Apps for Your Domain, until now a solely web-based suite of software, will soon be available to businesses as an enterprise solution. The package contains word-processing, spreadsheet, email, chat and calendar applications that would allow companies to choose an alternative to Microsoft Office.

The office applications would be available at a small per-person monthly charge - and allow businesses to outsource much of the data storage they now have to maintain.

Early corporate users, and Google itself, admit that the Google Apps For Your Domain package does not contain many features that Office users have become accustomed to. That may limit its adoption among larger corporations.

Microsoft recently debuted an onine version of its software, dubbed Office Live, to meet the growing demand for online applications.