Observations on SaaS and S+S (Software+Services)

John Dvorak (well known columnist at PC Magazine) has written an interesting article that depicts some of the downsides of the pure SaaS model. 

An extract of that article below:

"To analyze the illogic of certain trends, I like to employ a trick I call the "reverse timeline." I ask myself, "What happens if the timeline goes the other way?" In this instance, you'd start with server-based online applications, and then suddenly a new technology—the desktop computer with a quad-core processor and huge hard drive—appears. Now, you do not need to do all your computing online. The timeline is reversed.

You can image the advertising push. "Now control your own data!" "Faster processing power now." "Cheaper!" "Everything at your fingertips." "No need to worry about network outages." "Faster, cheaper, more reliable." On and on. I can almost hear the marketing types brag about how much better "shrink wrap" software is than the flaky online apps. The best line for the emergence of the desktop computer in a reverse timeline would be "It's about time!""

This interesting "reverse timeline" exercise obviously leads to the conclusion that the way forward is an architecture like Software + Services which precisely is about taking advantage of both software running as SaaS and software running locally (client and server software).  The bottom-line is that Saas AND local software should be used where and when it adds value for the end-user and his employer.

So far so good for MS who is promoting the S+S model...the only downside (for MS) is that this article John wrote, was prompted by the recent outage of the Microsoft “Windows Genuine Advantage” service which very unfortunately caused problems for thousands of users...

Read the full PC Magazine article here

Technorati Tags: S+S