Politics 3.0
The Merriam-Webster dictionary simply defines democracy as “government by the people”. What if, through technology, we could extend that definition… literally? If the incredible success of the Obama political machine, which leveraged an unprecedented amount of social networking technology to galvanize a grassroots movement, can be termed Politics 2.0, then I propose Politics 3.0, where technology enables constituents to vote securely online on every issue that will be presented at your political assembly of choice, e.g., city council, parliament, congress, senate.
Your elected representative takes the results of the online votes, along with the strongest supporting arguments (determined Digg-style), and presents them at the appropriate assembly. Your elected official becomes bound to the voice of the majority in his/her riding, immediately removing any chance of ambiguity or influence by lobbyists and other special interest groups.
A secure authentication system and process that could enable such a system doesn’t yet exist… but it will, eventually. Our next generation of politicians, who are growing up today under the influence of Web 2.0, will embrace this approach. Within the next 5 years, look for a candidate that will define his/her platform using this very approach (or variation thereof) running for City Council, Congress or Parliament.
Cloud Computing Redoubted
Cloud computing was featured prominently in tech news this week, thanks to the announcement of Microsoft’s Azure, their long awaited response to Amazon Web Services and Google App Engine.
If you’re new to the concept of cloud computing, here’s a great, high level overview of Azure from Webmonkey.com:
Azure is a web-based, scalable hosting environment for applications. Developers can build apps using one of Microsoft’s popular desktop coding tools, then deploy them to the Windows Azure platform, where they can be accessed by any computer or internet-connected mobile device. Microsoft supplies the storage, database server, identity management and processing power. As the demand for a particular app or service grows, the amount of resources dedicated to it can be increased or decreased on dynamically, stretching like a virtual elastic band.
I’ve written about the benefits of the cloud, and even speculated on why Microsoft should be diving in head first. However, despite all the apparent benefits, there is a small but growing movement cautioning against the cloud — and I find myself increasingly agreeing with them.
In an interview with The Guardian, Richard Stallman, founder of the Free Software Foundation and creator of the computer operating system GNU, says that “cloud computing was simply a trap aimed at forcing more people to buy into locked, proprietary systems that would cost them more and more over time.”
My reasons, however, differ slightly. While the cost of implementing and operating a web application that will scale to millions of users instantly as needed can be prohibitively expensive for small to medium sized companies, cloud computing makes sense for them right now - today. But what about tomorrow?
Engineering innovations (such as the memristor and plasmonic nanolithography to name a few) promise to deliver quantum leaps forward in CPU power, data storage and network speeds. It’s a matter of time before we will all have the power of Google’s massive data centers available in the heel of our shoes. The term “insufficient disk space” simply will not exist in tomorrow’s vocabulary, just as punch card driven mainframes do not exist in today’s. Hardware and operating infrastructure will be completely abstracted, and we’ll be able to focus on what really matters - developing that killer app for the iHeel.
Social Media Brand Analysis & Measurement
Who is saying what about your brand? And just as importantly, how influential are they? I had the great fortune of receiving a personal demo of Press Army, from Michael Sheetal, Director of UltraSuperNew Inc. during a recent Forrester Research Bloggers event in Tokyo, Japan. Press Army is a web-based tool that enables real-time brand or topic tracking and analysis in social media.
For our demo, we used the term “iPhone 3G” and specified Japan as our region of interest. An interactive timeline allowed us to focus on a 4-week period of activity around the launch date in Japan. A ranking of the contexts in which the search term was used provided insights into the nature and focus of the blog posts/tweets/etc. ”Availability” topped the list, while “Pricing” came in a distant 5th. Armed with this information, if I’m the iPhone marketing manager for Japan, I now have a great tool for prioritizing my marketing plans to maximize adoption. (On the other hand, if I’m the marketing manager for Nokia charged with introducing a smartphone competitor in the hyper-competitive and unforgiving Japanese market, I’m gaining invaluable competitive intelligence…)
Press Army also provided the ability to drill-down and identify specific bloggers who wrote about the “iPhone 3G” in Japan, ranked according to their level of influence, which is determined through several methods including # of views, # of link backs, # of followers (Twitter), and other variables. Being able to identify the most influential bloggers talking about a specific brand presents some very interesting options. I might consider methods of (ethically) amplifying the reach of bloggers that are discussing my brand in a positive light. Conversely, the ability to identify negative content, such as bad reviews, enables me to focus my limited time and energy on the most influential sources.
You can find more information about Press Army at http://pressarmy.com.
Tokyo 2.0
Tokyo 2.0 is actually the name of an industry networking group of web technology professionals here in Tokyo, the founders of whom I had the pleasure of meeting at a Forrester Research bloggers dinner event. The following is a summary of some of my observations & learnings during my trip and at the bloggers event.
Quick Response Codes. QR codes are ubiquitous in Japan. They are an enhanced form of traditional barcodes, and used on everything from business cards to shipping packages. Nearly all cell phones in Japan have the ability to scan QR codes - for example, scanning the QR code on a person’s business card will open the cell phone’s web browser to that person’s web site. An even better example - scan the QR code for a product while in a department store, and instantly access price comparisons on eBay.
The Japanese typically employ multiple identities/personas when interacting with online social communities. One identity represents the person’s true, real world identity. A second, partially anonymous identity is used to enable a less inhibited form of communication. Although a pseudonym is used, close friends and colleagues are typically aware of the person’s true identity. The third persona is totally anonymous, enabling totally uninhibited dialogue. This appears to be the most popular persona used, and has had a profound impact in the real world, as tragically exemplified by the recent suicide of a Korean celebrity, who was allegedly driven to kill herself as a result of overwhelmingly negative (and anonymous) online attacks (Japan and Korea share the anonymous-preferred approach to social computing).
Cell phone usage is through the roof. As expected, mobile phones are extremely popular in Japan. What I found curious, however, was the near-zero absence of Apple’s iPhone. What gives? Well, for starters, the iPhone can’t process digital TV signals, can’t be used as a bus and subway pass, can’t be used as a credit card, doesn’t support emoji characters (update: emoji characters are supported as of update 2.1, with enhanced support coming in update 2.2), nor can it scan QR codes (due to the significantly inferior built-in digital camera). These are all features that are readily available on nearly all other (and less expensive) mobile phones in Japan.
Tokyo fashion trends: East vs. West. According to W. David Marx, in Western markets, fashion trends (and I’m doing my best to paraphrase here - I’m no fashion expert by any stretch) tend to follow a more organic pattern of diffusion, where fashion forward individuals key in on certain aspects of an emerging trend, and adopt them to fit their own sense of style. This is in stark contrast to the Japanese, who take a much more strict approach to fashion adherence. The result: Westerners are visually highly varied, with loose to moderate interpretation of new fashions. The Japanese, on the other hand, look identical to what is presented in fashion magazines, the result of what appears to be an obsessive, perfectionist-like attention to detail and a culturally embedded desire for conformity.
Television, as a marketing channel, is still very much relevant in Japan. There are 2 national stations, and 5 local stations in Tokyo. For whatever reason, cable and satellite access never took off in Japan, which means the media diffusion and fracturing that resulted from the 500-channel universe in North America never happened in Japan. While traditional television advertising can be effective, product placement is king. Being featured on a popular program can (and almost virtually guarantees) overwhelming, overnight success.
Updated: More blog posts are generated in Japanese than any other language. While Japanese consumers seem ahead of the social computing curve, this lies in stark contrast to Japanese corporations, which have only begun to tepidly test the waters of engaging their customers in this emerging space, if at all. This would seem to represent a significant opportunity, especially for digital marketing agencies, to help these corporations understand why and how creating relationships leveraging digital mediums can enable competitive advantage.
Social media brand analysis & measurement. Who is saying what about your brand? And just as importantly, how influential are they? I had the great fortune of receiving a personal demo of Press Army, an innovative new tool from UltraSuperNew Inc. that enables real-time brand or topic tracking and analysis in social media. This impromptu review merits its own post.
Special thanks to:
- Jeremiah Owyang, Jonathan Browne and Ritsuko Tague from Forrester Research
- Michael Sheetal from UltraSuperNew Inc.
- W. David Marx from Diamond Agency
- Last but not least, my very good friend Swimmy Minami - thank you for showing me the best of Tokyo!
Microsoft’s Future May Lie In Its Past
How quickly things can change. It seems just a short while ago that Microsoft seemed utterly invincible, swatting away antitrust suits along with the competition as if they were mere flies.
Today, however, Microsoft seems more David than Goliath. With its rapidly decreasing influence on the desktop and the declining relevance of traditional software overall, Microsoft is desperate to reinvent itself in the face of Google’s dominance in search, Apple’s re-emergence with Mac OS and consumer gadgets, the ever increasing popularity (and market share) of Mozilla’s Firefox, and a growing consortium of firms that have embraced and continue to very successfully propagate the software-as-a-service model. Microsoft would seem to be fighting an uphill battle on all of these fronts. And I’m not even going to mention open source (that’s so yesterday).
So where and how can Microsoft leverage its $20 billion war chest to maintain relevance, if not wholly recapture its position as an undisputed technology leader?
I believe the answer lies in Microsoft’s past. Microsoft skyrocketed to success by creating a highly accessible platform that was easy to use by consumers, and easy to develop for by 3rd parties. Windows 3.1 represented a singularly, fantastic break-through achievement.
But what does that mean for today and tomorrow? Vista was 3 years late, and it shows. But does anyone care? The only other real competitor on the desktop is… Microsoft. So forget about the desktop. Especially relevant since no one is developing for the desktop anymore. At the risk of stating the obvious, Web-based applications are well on their way to displacing traditional software on the consumer desktop, and the enterprise won’t be far behind as wireless hi-speed internet access becomes more and more ubiquitous.
Let’s consider Microsoft’s historical strengths: the ability to provide a robust, development platform and programming tools, combined with monopolistic end user reach. In today’s context, user reach continues to be achieved via Internet Explorer’s continuing dominance in the browser space. The opportunity therefore lies in the provisioning of an application development framework, tools and infrastructure for delivering world class, internet applications. Throw in some increasingly popular buzzwords like Cloud Computing, On Demand and SaaS, and we begin to form a vision of the future where Microsoft powers the engine, indeed the operating system, of the on demand, cloud computing model. (I cite numerous benefits of the on demand model in a previous article.)
They’ll have some catching up to do — firms such as Amazon, with their S3 and other cloud computing services, have already launched and are being adopted by early innovators. But Microsoft, known for taking good ideas from others and turning them into great (and profitable) applications, wouldn’t have it any other way, would they? Cloud computing is in its infancy and has had its fair share of challenges, and thus provides a perfect opportunity for Microsoft to enter and provide a stable platform that enables the security, robustness and credibility necessary for the enterprise to jump on board.
Update (08/19): Inklings of a “Cloud OS” from Microsoft, codenamed Midori, are beginning to trickle out.
The Obligatory iPhone 3G Review
As a marketing & technology professional, I’ve been interested in the iPhone since its original launch last year for three main reasons:
- As a professional, how will the iPhone enhance my productivity?
- As a marketer, how will the iPhone impact the mobile channel, and thus our ability to reach out and create meaningful experiences and relationships with consumers?
- As a tech geek, will the iPhone satisfy my insatiable hunger for ultra-cool gadgets?
Canadians, at long last, now have legitimate, fully-functional access to the iPhone. But was it worth the wait? My short answer: a resounding Yes. Here’s why.
New Features
The iPhone 3G launched with new software (version 2.0 firmware) that enabled many new capabilities. Chief among them, from a noise and publicity perspective, is the App Store, a centralized repository for 3rd party applications. While I appreciate the significance of this gesture, it is, in fact, “old news” for enthusiasts who have hacked their iPhones and iPod Touches to load 3rd party applications since the iPhone’s original 2007 release.
For me, the real surprise came in the form of enterprise support, specifically for Microsoft Exchange. With ActiveSync support, I managed to setup (with zero involvement from IT) access to my Exchange email account in less than 3 minutes. It was as simple as entering my email server, username and password.
I immediately had ultra-sexy, BlackBerry-like access to my Exchange email and calendar, much to the envy of my Treo-toting peers. (Contact synchronization is also available.) While there has been some criticism of the current state of Exchange support on the iPhone, I have not encountered any lack of functionality from a typical (and fairly picky) power user perspective. The iPhone thus immediately becomes an interesting option for businesses on the fence considering mobile email - Apple has effectively reduced the cost of entry by eliminating the need for a dedicated BlackBerry Enterprise Server.
The Data Debacle
Much controversy greeted the Canadian launch of the iPhone. The lack of an “unlimited” data plan irked many prospective customers. Rogers, the exclusive iPhone carrier in Canada, finally relented and made available a limited time offer of a $30 “unlimited” 6GB plan. While I would be the first to welcome more competition in Canada’s limited telecom space, I seriously questioned the average user’s ability to burn through gigabytes of data on a mobile device, even with 3G and the rich web capabilities of the iPhone.
Since my purchase, exactly 3 weeks ago, I have done everything possible to use as much data as possible: push email (Exchange ActiveSync), pull email (Gmail IMAP), web, YouTube, GPS + Google Maps, 3rd party applications. Despite all that activity, I have managed to only use a grand total of 87.3MB, which translates to 12% of my available 750MB monthly allocation.
A simple extrapolation suggests that I will be at 116.4MB by the end of my first month, a far cry from even the least expensive Rogers plan that provides 400MB monthly.
Battery Life
The one dark spot of my initial iPhone experience was not entirely unexpected, but quite unwelcome nevertheless. With Exchange support (push email and calendar) fully configured, I looked forward to casually pulling out my iPhone in any one of my multitude of Monday meetings. To my horror, I reached less than 50% battery power by noon - and I hadn’t made nor received a single phone call (my old BlackBerry could last a week!). By the end of the business day, I was in the red, and I seriously wondered if I would have enough juice to make a phone call (if I needed to) on the drive home.
At first, I considered tweaking some settings to conserve battery power - e.g., turning off 3G, GPS, push email - but then, what would be the point of buying the latest and greatest mobile device? I stubbornly left everything ON. A good friend and former colleague, Jerry Lee, an early adopter of the original iPhone, assured me that after a few battery recharge cycles, the battery life would, in fact, increase. Following his advice (and really, not having much choice) I charged the iPhone 3G every night. After one week, the change was astounding. Qualitatively, battery life increased roughly by double - I went from barely getting through 1 day to comfortably getting through 2 days of normal usage.
New Marketing Channel
Many firms have created iPhone-optimized versions of their websites. My favorites include CNET News and The Toronto Star. The New York Times has gone one step further and has provided, via the App Store, a native client that resides on your iPhone that will pull news content and make it available for offline access (think subway ride). In the case of the NY Times, the content is ad-supported by a non-intrusive, simple banner along the bottom of the screen.
The buzz right now is social networking on the iPhone, and the proliferation of iPhone-only social networking applications, completely bypassing traditional networks such as Facebook and MySpace. Eventually, we will see location awareness enabled applications that (with permissions) will alert you that the person, who just entered your favorite watering hole, is single, prefers Rickard’s White, and loves long, romantic walks on the beach. The greater question of, would we really want this, I’ll leave to greater minds.
Bottom Line
The iPhone 3G does a great job of providing useful, compelling applications that are wonderfully integrated - the experience of snapping a 2 megapixel photo and emailing it (with 3G speed) to any number of my contacts with just a few, simple keystrokes is priceless.
Pros:
- Microsoft Exchange integration (mail, calendar and contacts)
- Virtually unlimited access to 3rd party applications via the App Store
- Visual Voicemail allows you to pick and choose which messages to listen to first
- Excellent voice quality and iPod music playback
- Newly purchased songs made via iPhone iTunes app are automatically uploaded to iTunes on your PC/Mac on your next sync
- Super intuitive integration of core applications (e.g., Camera and Email)
Cons:
- Low battery life
- No Flash support (yet)
- No video recording capability
The competition in the smart phone space will continue to heat up with the introduction of RIM’s counter-attack to the iPhone 3G, the BlackBerry Bold, scheduled for release this month.
Next-gen UGC web app from Animoto
- Use photos from your desktop, or directly from other established photo-sharing sites such as Flickr and Facebook
- Automatic synchronization of images and music (music can be uploaded or selected from an online library)
- Export feature to YouTube or local hard disk; can be embedded YouTube-style in any web page
- Special effects are applied based on image and music CONTENT (i.e., a la kaleidoscope/visualization feature in iTunes or WinAmp)
- Free service for 30 second clips
Update 5:21PM: Further digging revealed that Animoto is, in fact, using Amazon’s cloud computing platform to deliver this service.
CRM On Demand from SAP
SAP has announced its latest iteration of its CRM suite, which includes a hosted, on demand model that claims an optimized user interface using Web 2.0 technologies. I was curious to know what the software giant had came up with; SAP and Web 2.0 in the same sentence — that had to be worth at least a few minutes of investigation.
My first criticism is the lack of any true, interactive demo. Web videos (registration required) demonstrating the product were the only tools available for previewing the product. (Other on demand CRM products, namely Salesforce.com and NetSuite, offer free trials in addition to complementary online videos.)
The demo videos are structured to show the perspectives of how SAP CRM can be used by a Sales Rep, a Sales Manager and a Marketing Manager. Without getting into too much depth, the videos focused on showing a few specific examples of usage, such as adjusting a sales target and qualifying a sales lead. While the examples are intentionally simplistic, the real question is: how much effort is required to configure the product, and what is the flexibility to customize to meet one’s unique business requirements? SAP is careful not to include any videos of how the system is configured, nor any glimpses of its customization capabilities.
There is also little evidence of “Web 2.o”. It’s possible, although difficult to see via web video, if SAP CRM is using AJAX to do things like minimize page refreshing. I didn’t see any examples of in-line field editing. From a social computing perspective, there was no mention of integration opportunities with popular social networking frameworks like Facebook or LinkedIn (a la FaceForce), nor any mention of an ability to enable collaboration with partners or vendors (I’m thinking of Salesforce-to-Salesforce here). In other words, the ability to securely share (configurable) access to customer information with 3rd parties.
I had also read, via this Reuters article, that SAP CRM 2007 would come with support out of the box for the iPhone. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any reference to the iPhone on SAP’s own website. Inputting “iPhone” into their search tool currently returns zero results.
SAP CRM 2007 has only become available in the last week, so it may be a while before we start to hear about real experiences configuring and using it.
Microsoft’s Titan to enter PaaS ring
Microsoft is planning to bring on demand application development tools (a.k.a. Platform-as-a-Service) to market with its next iteration of Dynamics CRM. There’s limited information from a Jan ‘07 press release from Microsoft’s website:
“The new version introduces an advanced multitenant architecture, and uses a single code base to support on-premise deployments as well as software-as-a-service (SaaS) deployments through hosting partners and through the upcoming Microsoft Dynamics Live CRM service. It also uses a single code base to support on-premise deployments as well as software-as-a-service (SaaS) deployments through hosting partners and the upcoming Microsoft Dynamics Live CRM service.”
One of the key differences between Microsoft’s approach vs. Salesforce.com is that Titan will provide implementation options that include an on-premise model (which completely negates the benefits of on demand), via ASP hosting partners, or hosted directly by Microsoft. Positives include .Net compatibility, which will reduce training requirements for getting existing Microsoft development shops up and running quickly.
The press release mentions a mid-2007 release date target, which was missed. A recent article from eWeek (which is what actually put Titan on my radar) mentions a December 2007 release date.
The Future of Software
The industry is abuzz with terms like “on demand”, “software-as-a-service”, “open source” and “service-oriented architecture”. What do all these mean, and more importantly, what does this mean to the future of how we deliver business applications to the enterprise?
Like many questions that seek to understand the road ahead, it’s often helpful to look to the past. Are there any trends from which we can draw insights — clues for how the software model will evolve?
The origins of mainstream business computing can be traced back to the use of mainframes in the mid 1900’s. Interaction first occurred via punch cards, which evolved to dumb, “green-screen” terminals. And while much of this technology will appear nonsensical to today’s Facebook generation, the key concept here is that all the hard work (computation, data storage) was managed by the mainframe. Think centralized, command & control.
The invention of the microprocessor and the advent of personal computers introduced a major power shift to end users. Business analysts were empowered with the ability to process more information more efficiently ever more independently. Think distributed, free-for-all , digital democracy (or anarchy, if you’re an IT administrator).
In simplistic terms, the result was a chaotic, non-standardized, multi-silo’d mish mash of data and processes. As server technology advanced, IT managers united to reign in control, delivering applications using proprietary server-client models in a bid to standardize information management and business processes, not to mention enhance security and asset management. Think centralized, command and… well, you get the idea.
As IT departments struggled against the tide, enterprising 3rd party firms would enter the fray to provide variations of the same theme: to control costs, companies looked to outsource the management of their on-premise infrastructure to specialized IT service vendors (IBM, Siemens). While this maneuver may have impressed investors and worked short-term magic on the balance sheet, in reality, it did little to address the root issue of many organizations - and that was IT’s increasingly deficient ability to respond to rapidly changing business needs.
The introduction of the Internet, accompanied by its death warrant on mass media, only served to deepen this gap. Practically overnight, Sales & Marketing departments were left struggling to understand how the game had changed, let alone know how and where to effectively spend their advertising dollars. Relationship marketing and customer-centric strategies were the names of the game now, and they would need innovative technology to win.
Need a CRM solution, but the IT department is too busy maintaining the ERP, fighting the latest virus, troubleshooting network issues, playing with VoIP and upgrading (read: fixing) servers? (Let alone have the incentives, resources and skill sets to help with a CRM project?) Enter the Application Service Provider (ASP). Having worked for an ASP, specializing in Sales Force Automation (SFA) and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) consultation and implementation, I had a firsthand perspective of how ASPs could add value to the enterprise. Successful engagements always shared the same characteristics:
- The ASP has a deep understanding of the client’s Sales & Marketing business challenges and needs.
- The client’s Sales & Marketing organizations understood the need for change.
- The client’s IT department recognized they needed a partner to deliver innovative, new technology to support this change.
It goes without saying that solid business fundamentals (industry knowledge, strategic vision, operational excellence) are critical for ASP success, but what about the tools? I’m referring to the actual programming tools that we used to build business applications that would serve as the platform for CRM and SFA. If we relied on building our tools from scratch using conventional programming languages (COBOL, C, Fortran), we would run the risk of being just as slow to react to changing requirements as the traditional IT departments we wanted to displace. The answer would be found in RAD tools, short for Rapid Application Development.
Platforms such as IBM’s Lotus Notes/Domino, recognized more for its corporate email, provide a foundation that includes a proven user security model, user interface, mature data synchronization engine and a graphical programming interface (a la Visual Basic). In essence, programmers didn’t have to worry about creating and maintaining these elements included in the platform’s foundation. They could focus more on building and creating the business logic and features demanded by the business.
The benefits of this approach to the client are numerous; the onus of maintaining the underlying infrastructure of these business applications is effectively the ASP’s responsibility. Total cost of implementation is often less expensive than an internal undertaking, with far greater returns on investment. It’s an efficient model, especially if it is supported by a solid framework of incentives. Based on annual service and licensing agreements, the ASP is incented to continually minimize development and infrastructure costs (remember, all the overhead of maintaining servers, ensuring service levels, managing hard disk space, etc. is on the ASP).
This brings us to the present day. We’re inundated with terms like Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and Service-oriented Architecture (SoA). In fact, SaaS is just a fancy descriptor for many web applications we already take for granted, including web-based email (Gmail) and social networking apps (YouTube, Flickr). From the perspective of the enterprise, successful SaaS examples include web-based CRM tool Saleforce.com, and web conferencing tool WebEx. All of these applications have something in common - they are all delivered over the web, and don’t discriminate over who is using their service.
Despite the emergence of SaaS, there has been minimal impact to ASPs that focus on delivering truly customized, turnkey business solutions. SaaS applications tend to be designed for large, diverse audiences with minimal tolerance for customization. But this is all about to change. Recall that ASPs, especially when experiencing growth, face significant infrastructure costs as customer needs expand (servers, storage area networks, hosting and bandwidth, IT staff, etc.). All of these factors, when stressed, lead to a diminished level of responsiveness to the client. But what if all of these factors could be abstracted? What if, similar to how ASPs removed business application infrastructure from its client, it could be removed from the ASP? What if a 3rd party service provider could enable the ASP with an on demand application development and delivery infrastructure that is more cost effective and has more benefits? This is the essence of Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), and in my view, represents the next evolutionary step of the business application development and delivery model.
The concept of PaaS is still very new. In fact, at the time of this writing, there isn’t even a Wikipedia entry for it yet. And the very concept of moving to a web-based application development environment almost requires a leap-of-faith of sorts, until you consider the real benefits:
- Scalability: Scaling effectively (instantly, say, from 100 to 100,000 users) introduces logistical and financial challenges for the average ASP.
- Zero Hardware Maintenance: No need for the ASP to maintain an on-premise server farm, maintaining production vs. development vs. testing environments, upgrading software, patching security holes, performing data backups, the list goes on.
- 99.99% up-time: Factors both in and out of the ASP’s control determine up-time and availability. How many ASP’s can claim better up-time vs. Gmail or YouTube?
- Multi-tenancy: Leverage the infrastructure designed to support large-scale enterprise users that number in the hundreds of thousands, for clients of any size. Bandwidth and performance concerns are so last year.
- RAD 2.0: Enhanced Rapid Application Development tools (security model, user interface, etc.) provide ever more flexible, inter-operable features and functionality.
Consider, for a moment, traditional software giant Adobe’s initiative to introduce a web-based version of its flagship product, Photoshop, and the concept of taking traditional application development tools to the web becomes more palatable.
So who are the major players in PaaS? They’re not who you think: it’s not Microsoft. It’s not IBM. It’s not Oracle or SAP. Surprisingly, the only company delivering on the promise of PaaS today is Salesforce.com through their Force.com service offering. But perhaps it’s not that surprising, given that the CRM on demand upstart has the most to gain and the least to lose. Microsoft has a PaaS -like initiative in the works currently dubbed “Oslo“, but it’s years away. IBM’s “Blue Cloud” initiative reads more like a solution for would-be PaaS providers… and it’s years away. Neither of these tech giants are likely to be overly excited about the impending conflict with their existing (and very profitable) traditional software and service models. There’s been buzz of an Oracle buy-out of Salesforce.com, but don’t rule out Google or Microsoft.
Salesforce.com certainly has a sizable head start in the PaaS arena, but look for competitors to emerge as more success stories and noise is generated in the coming months. My recommendations to anyone considering Platform-as-a-Service:
- Put Salesforce.com on your watch list.
- Add PaaS to your technology roadmap and assign a resource to start the process of investigation and education.
- Consider a small-scale pilot project.
ASPs (or any provider of software-based business solutions) will ultimately need to adapt and evolve as PaaS matures. To ignore it would risk irrelevance and displacement by up and coming companies with ever more dynamic and innovative methodologies and.. well, you get the idea.
