Microsoft Corp. took over the cloud spotlight last week after the torrent of news from Amazon Inc.’s infrastructure-as-a-service event subsided at last with the addition of new security functionality to its rivaling platform that promises to help protect off-premise databases more effectively. The launch represents the latest shot in a long-running competition over key corporate records that have historically been stored behind the firewall.

Redmond previously released a managed implementation of SQL Server  that promises to drastically reduce the amount of administrative work involved in running the relational store on its public cloud. The threat mitigation features it’s now rolling out for the service extend that automation to security, encrypting records and alerting administrators when a potential breach is detected.

Microsoft’s push to expand the appeal of its platform came against the backdrop of frienemy Salesforce.com Inc. launching a parallel growth initiative with a much more external focus. The customer relationship management giant’s venture capital arm announced plans to invest $100 million in European startups over the next five years as part of its efforts to tap the continent’s rapidly growing appetite for cloud services.

Salesforce isn’t alone in eyeing the opportunities across the pond.  Zendesk Inc. one of its biggest rivals in the customer care delivery niche, also entered the European arena last week with the acquisition of business intelligence provider We Are Cloud SAS for a hefty $45 million.

The French firm’s analytics software will be integrated into its help desk service to help support staff understand their users better and optimize their complaint resolution activities accordingly. Zendesk hopes that the combined whole will be able to put up a better fight against the business intelligence service that Salesforce.com added to its cloud platform last year.

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