Future of Software
mqh777
September 24th, 2008
I have a general question for all of you techs out there. With all of this "cloud computing" that companies like SalesForce are pushing do you even see a need for things like SVS and visualized software in the near future? I have seen where companies like SalesForce are promoting the elimination of your IT staff to support software which is not good news for guys like me.
What is the general consensus on the future of visualized software?
The head of IBM once predicted that the world would never need more than 5 computers. Bill Gates told us that we would not need more than 640K of ram in our PCs.
I don't think you have anything to worry about. No company is going to rely entirely on an outside vendor for software support. There are too many in house applications - many of which provide competitive edge and would never be released outside for fear of the software getting into the wrong hands.
Then there are the infrastructure overheads - a failure in the network could lead to hundreds or thousands of people unable to work - that could be financially crippling.
However - I have to ask you - do you REALLY want to spend your entire life in IT ??
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As history has proven out the past decade -- since Scott McNealy first said "the network is the computer" -- not all applications can or should be Webified. Salesforce.com is one great example of success with a web-based application as a service. But Web app successes have been the exception, not the rule. Why? The need for disconnected mode support, for one thing. That's probably the biggest. Also:
- need/desire for "rich client" UI -- some of the best web apps are there, but it takes a lot of development work and bandwidth for something you just inherently get (locally) with Windows
- apps that require extreme local hardware muscle and/or direct access to local hardware due to size/complexity/nature (there will never be a Web version of AutoCAD)
- profound effort (and no resources) for vendors to build new/alternate versions of their applications when the market is perfectly happy with their existing Windows products
- huge catalogs of existing, legacy applications that meet business requirements, where there is no motivation (or money) to replace/migrate
- need for local/in-house customization and control of configuration
So application virtualization and streaming is actually THE key to accelerating "cloud computing" (latest term for an ancient concept), as it allows existing software to be made available online, as a service (in those cases when that's a better business model), with no need to re-architect, rebuild and replace Windows-based products. Any software can be streamed. And virtualization makes sure the delivery and use of it is reliable, no matter what the client looks like.
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