The number one item from the cloud this week is probably the public preview of Office 2013, the upcoming release of Microsoft’s productivity suite.

The highlight is that while the industry-leading software bundle is still very much designated for more traditional usage on the PC, there are a few very strong components that label the new Office as a service more than anything.  There’s a new subscription model called Office-on-Demand that lets you ‘stream’ individual applications from the suite to different devices, and the suite is integrated with SkyDrive cloud storage. Users can sync not only files but also preferences and templates, according to Microsoft.

Among of the many other new additions, support is extended for third parties – developers can now build their own unique apps on top of Office, a feature that, if implemented correctly, could add a lot of value for users.

Another major highlight from this week is a rumor that VMware and EMC are working on a new spin off with Cloud Foundry at its core – the former’s open PaaS. This transition would proceed another big internal change for the firm: CEO Paul Martiz stepped down this week.

Just a day after SiliconANGLE learned of Paul Martiz’ departure, Cisco announced an update of its own. The networking giant acquired Virtuata for an undisclosed amount; the firm makes security software for virtualized environments. Its platform supports all the major hypervisors and will be integrated into Cisco’s data center group.

Security is a big issue in the cloud in light of a seemingly growing amount of attacks launched by hackers against corporate targets.  Several major websites including Nvidia’s forums have been compromised last week, and Cisco is tackling this topic from the networking angle.