Google Docs allows multiple members of an organization to easily collaborate on a single document. (Google Image)

With over 130,000 employees, Airbus uses a lot of office productivity software. It recently decided to make a big bet on Google’s G Suite software package after running the company for years on hosted versions of Microsoft Office, according to a report.

The Register got its hands on (well, saw on a screen of some sort) an internal memo from Airbus CEO Tom Enders outlining the shift to G Suite as part of the company’s ongoing “digital transformation,” which is the new ubiquitous and fairly meaningless enterprise tech marketing buzzword. We’re really just talking about upgrades from hosted, on-premises software applications to cloud software applications, a transformation that for the most part has already taken place outside big old companies like Airbus.

Still, it’s a nice deal for Google’s G Suite, the Google-hosted package that includes Docs, Gmail, and several other productivity apps. Google finally decided to share revenue figures for its cloud division, telling investors in February that it is making $1 billion a quarter between Google Cloud Platform and G Suite, and Airbus is a big enough company to move the needle.

It’s also a disappointment for Microsoft, which chose to “politely decline” an opportunity to comment on the Airbus memo to The Register. Companies have been shifting away from on-premises versions of Microsoft Office for years, but Microsoft has done fairly well convincing those companies to use Office 365, as evidenced by the 41 percent growth in commercial revenue posted by the Office 365 group during its second fiscal quarter.

Like what you're reading? Subscribe to GeekWire's free newsletters to catch every headline

Job Listings on GeekWork

Find more jobs on GeekWork. Employers, post a job here.