There is a tide in the affairs of men, which taken at the flood leads on to fortune; Omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in miseries. On such a full sea are we now afloat. And we must take the current when it serves, or lose our ventures.

Visionary and endlessly allusive as he was, Shakespeare probably did not have one eye on the current state of enterprise software when he put this speech into the mouth of Brutus in Julius Caesar.

Never mind. As so often, his words are strangely suited to our times and chime with a possible move a few industry watchers are whispering about.

All right, enough beating about the proverbial. What I mean is that this would be a great time for Google to make a move into big-business software and the most totemic gesture it could make would be buying Salesforce.com.

This would turn the tide Shakespeare referenced into a full-blown tsunami, sending Oracle, Microsoft and SAP scurrying about on damage-limitation missions.

The time is now because on-demand software offers a fresh approach that could convert followers of the client/server gospel in several key areas where belief in the old religion is fading.

The time is now also because of Google’s unique rise and youthful ambition. Salesforce currently has a market capitalisation of under $5bn, an impressive figure for a company that was founded in 1999, but Google’s figures are the most eye-popping of all, and the big one is a cap of over $122bn that sees the company standing higher than ever.

I’m sure supporters of Salesforce staying independent will argue that the company does not need the money. It is generating plenty to keep research and development, infrastructure and hiring ahead of the game.

That would be fine were Salesforce stalking rabbits in the small- and mid-sized business sector but if it is really serious about the big game of SAP and Oracle, it needs to offer blue-chips a ton of reassurance that it is here to stay.

The warm feeling associated with having a Google-sized financial buffer would do much to assuage fears that Salesforce could be acquired by an Oracle or similar.

Salesforce is one of the most interesting software startups I have seen in 18 years covering the IT market. It is a breath of fresh air, a bellwether, a pioneer, a new kid on the block, a phenomenon. Hell, it may even merit its own original accolade.

To see its promise eviscerated by an acquirer more interested in market share and taking out a rival would be truly horrible and probably fatal.

However, a deal with Google would be a true meeting of minds and the challenge of taking on the old guard with a new ally that holds the same tenets of faith could generate a buzz among Salesforce staff and management.

Need it be Google that attempts to chart a new course for software? Another iconoclastic company such as Apple may serve and there is an argument to be made for a roll-up of software-as-a-service leaders. But Google stands at the flood and the time to act is now.