DigiDigest

Software as a Service

The traditional model in the computing world has been “software as a product”, that is software is boxed and sold as a physical product that users buy and then own (or at least have rights to use) forever. This concept is so ingrained that software venders who only offer their product via download, with no physical component, will display images of virtual cardboard boxes over the download button.

“Software as a service” dispenses with the idea of software ownership. Now instead of the software vender selling you their software to keep forever, they rent you the software’s capabilities for just when you need it.

There are many approached to software as a service. The vendor could give you a copy of their application that deletes or disables itself at the end of the contract. Alternatively the vender could allow you to use their software running on their servers. Both benefit from the Internet as a delivery mechanism.

Salesforce.com (www.salesforce.com) was one of the first companies to embrace software as a service over ten years ago. Their customer relationship management (CRM) tool exists solely as a web application.

CRM as a web application makes sense. It is really a problem of maintaining a large, common database, and that can be most easily solved by centralising the database on a common server. It is then just a small step from having the server in an air-conditioned room at the end of the hall to having it out there, somewhere on the net (preferably in a concrete bunker with fire control and independent power supply in a non-earthquake prone, politically stable corner of the Earth).

That move on to the web seems incremental on the face of it, but there are greater implications. When the database went onto the web, the application that used that data went with it. The browser just shows a picture and reports back keystrokes and mouse clicks. All the heavy lifting is done by the server.

When this first occurred it was not an ideal solution. Putting the database on the net solved the problem of keeping the database synchronised, and introduced the problem of lag. On a slow connection there is a noticeable delay between mouse click and screen update. This has been the bane of web applications - lack of responsiveness.

The solution is coming from two ends. At one end the ubiquity of broadband means the internet is just plain faster. From the other end the growing capabilities of browsers  and client-side scripting means less data has to be pushed back and forth for the same onscreen effects. It has changed the web so much it got a new name: Web 2.0.

Now you can use online applications that are just as powerful and responsive as installed software. Google Docs (docs.google.com) offers applications that are not only equivalent to Microsoft Word and Excel, but they are free and take up no space on your hard drive. Abobe is already taking the first steps towards an online version of their flagship application Photoshop (www.photoshop.com/express).

Users benefit as they use software where and when they need it, with all the latest features and patches, without installation. Their applications live on the web so they can follow them from machine to machine. Developers benefit from the ease of rolling out patches and fixes as well as being able to control the only installation of their application – no one has the application to pirate it.

In the future, if your internet connection is fast (and it will be) then perhaps all you will need on your desktop is a monitor, keyboard, mouse and enough computing power to run a browser – the kind of power that is available on a modern mobile phone. You will not need to own software as you will be able to rent just what you need just when you need it.

And it is not just word processors and spreadsheets that are moving online and on-demand. Coming this year in the States is OnLive (www.onlive.com), an online service where you can play the latest PC and console games from multiple producers. The games actually run on OnLive’s servers while you view them through a browser plug-in on your PC, or on your TV through an OnLive micro-console - which is about the size of a pocket calculator. You will not need a powerful PC, a Playstation 3 or an Xbox 360. You will just need a fast internet connection. You do not even need to buy the games you play, just rent time on OnLive’s servers and play anything from their library.

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