Software as a Service

The landscape of the software industry is changing dramatically. 

Some [of the older generations] say that the more it changes, the more it stays the same - with specific reference to terminal applications that saw us through to the 90's, thick client applications of the early PC era, client server models notable of the new millennium, and now thin Web 2.0 based applications emerging as the way forward.  The "application-in-a-browser" model smacks of 3270... without the awful UI.

The key difference, however, is undoubtedly the commodotisation of the PC.  The current generation is building on software models that will see similar commodotisation of software products in the not so distant future.  Sure, Microsoft is a factory that has driven the price of software down through economies of scale like no other.  But a market with a single dominant player can only sustain itself for so long.

Enter Google.  Their unstated, ambitious goal of toppling the odds in favour of free software for all, not considering current open-source and free software efforts, will be a bitter pill for many to swallow.  Yes, open-source has led the way in "free development for all", but it currently falls short of producing real business altering productivity software as it stands today.

We cannot say for sure that what Google is steering towards will be free.  "Don't be Evil" may translate into "Do as I say, not as I do".  But I'm willing to bet my grandmother that alternative revenue streams offered by online software will result in these business altering productivity software being free in the not so distant future.

Email is the perfect example.  Without wanting to restate the overstated, online email services are, for all intents and purposes, free.  What's next?

Well, let's take a quick tally of Google's emerging arsenal:

• Google Mail
• Google Calendar
• Google Spreadsheet
• Google Notes
  
• Google Talk

There are others, but these for me pack the most punch when it comes to software that users have become so dependent on in Microsoft Office.  Rumours are that Microsoft is pulling out all the stops to accommodate this new software model, including Ray Ozzie, the new Chief Software Architect at Microsoft.  Microsoft has been preaching the Software-as-a-Service business model for some time now, so I'm sure they will release several industry eye-openers when the time is right.  Let's hope so.

There are many, many more free web based applications out there.  I'll touch on some of them in later blogs.  But for now, personally, I can't wait for the battle field to open up.

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