Is it possible that Microsoft has found its new CEO? Just as the week was coming to a close, rumors began to float that Ford CEO Alan Mulally has become the front runner for the role. Why is that? Because both John Thompson -- the Microsoft board member leading the search -- and Steve Ballmer both think very highly of him. In truth, Mulally, who in a former life also served as the CEO of Boeing, strikes us as a very solid candidate for taking over at Microsoft as well. Meanwhile, Microsoft has now also managed to release new versions of its Surface tablets. We wonder if the new versions - and the purported Surface Mini will take Microsoft's tablets to their expected heights or if Microsoft will need to look at the Surface Pro 3 for salvation.

While Microsoft roots around to find its way on the tablet front, Apple is setting the stage for its next iPad releases, due to appear in October. If sales go anywhere as well as the new iPhone 5s and 5c sales have gone through their opening weekend, it won't much matter what Microsoft does. iPhone sales have been record-breaking. Apple has also been working quietly and diligently to significantly enhance its iOS enterprise capabilities.

We believe that iOS 7 (which is in fact a full-fledged 64-bit implementation) in combination with the 64-bit architecture introduced with the iPhone 5s sets the stage for Apple to eventually merge iOS and Mac OS. The possibilities for Apple in the enterprise increase dramatically under such a scenario.

There is yet more to note on Apple this week. First, let's make sure to set aside the nonsense that there might be a connection between Apple, its Touch ID, a fingerprint database and the NSA getting hold of such a beast. It is simply utter nonsense. And last, we'll note that Apple has managed to deliver a highly cost-effective design with the iPhone 5s. A new teardown and bill of materials analysis claims that the iPhone 5s will cost nearly the same for Apple to build as the original iPhone 5. This is good news both for Apple's top line and bottom line - stay tuned for a record earnings announcement come January 2014.

This week brought us the end game of the Americas Cup. For those who don't know, Larry Ellison happens to own Oracle Team USA (that 'Oracle" should tip anyone off), which this week won the race with a thrilling eight race win streak after being down eight races to one. Ellison has a long (and somewhat checkered) history with the Americas cup, and he is responsible for having brought the race - and sailing - into the 21st with the AC-72 catamarans that raced around at 50+ miles an hour at some points in the races. In any case, Oracle Team USA won the overall race nine wins to eight - leaving Ellison is a fabulous mood. Perhaps this is also why he has suddenly changed his tune on cloud computing, having gone from abject cloud hater to over the top cloud lover!

Just as well. The cloud is here to stay. But the cloud isn't always the cakewalk some - including now Oracle, might lead you to think. SunGard has certain views for example on the issues of compliance and resiliency for cloud implementations that is well worth scoping out. SunGard's thoughts are particularly relevant in the face of a new report that surfaced this week that states organizations are literally flying blind with their cloud implementations and cloud-based services.

We'll wrap up this week by noting that storage giant EMC, which was a presenter at Oracle's annual OpenWorld gathering (we should have noted above that apparently Ellison missed an Oracle OpenWorld keynote presentation in order to stay close to Oracle Team USA as it came down to the wire on victory), delivered some rather substantial insights on the right ways for businesses to handle storage in the high demand virtualized world enterprises now live in.

Have a great weekend!