Hard-hitting IT commentator Dr Simon Moores gives his personal take
on the hot issue of the day.
Software as a service. Does it have a future? It's a question I'm
trying to answer as my Virgin train lurches uncertainly on its way
home from a seminar in Birmingham.
You've heard the sad story. Once upon a time it was ASP
(applications service provision) but nobody really wanted it,
understood it or could afford it.
Faced with its own obituary, it then became xSP or managed services
(MSP), fractionally more attractive as an acronym, but hard-pressed
to find customers who were prepared to take the risk or believe the
promises being made for it.
Today, what was once ASP is becoming increasingly mixed in with Web
services. Where one starts and another ends remains a grey area for
the analysts.
ASP, you remember, started as a really clever way of delivering the
popular and heavier Office-type applications to a thin client over
an Internet or VPN connection.
It was really Citrix by another name and explains why the company -
in conjunction with Microsoft - was seen as the driving force
behind the idea. The trouble was at the time that the
communications wasn't up to the task and the sheer cost of setting
up the infrastructure, invariably made applications delivery more
expensive for the customer than simply buying software licences.
For the ASPs it was rather like building a Disney theme park in the
Midlands, relying on the rail network, with trains like the one I'm
sitting in, to bring the customers, the last mile, to the door. It
is, arguably, cheaper and more comfortable to fly directly to
Florida.
Software as a service is now becoming much more about smart
Web-enabled applications, as it should have been in the first
place. True, the likes of Telewest are now in the business with
partners such as 7Global, and those big Microsoft Office and
messaging applications can be provided by their services, such as
Blueyonder.
There are, however, many more examples of true Web-enabled
applications appearing from ISVs, my favourite being Equology, the
e-commerce development and Web hosting service for small businesses
that I use for my own Web site.
ASP has changed, it has grown up but very few people have noticed
and are even prepared to find out, given the industry's dismal
track record for reliability. In this country, cheap broadband
isn't just good for the home user; it's likely to have a major
impact on the managed service market in the small business sector.
Fast reliable access to component applications is going to make
companies more confident about the ASP/xSP model.
The future will be one of mixed applications. Some will be local
and others will be distributed along ASP lines. Today you don't
think twice about using a resource such as Streetmap.co.uk over the
Web and, perhaps, Office from your company server.
Over time, you'll find yourself mixing and matching applications
depending on how frequently they are needed and how heavy the use
might be. Some will be more cost effective as "pay per view" apps,
a market that Microsoft is developing through .net; others will be
rented from ASP/xSPs and the remainder will be available
locally.
In the end, ASP will be less about technology and more about
choice. While the acronym may be tired, the process behind it is
gradually creeping into the way we work. Before long, we'll take
for granted an idea that hundreds of millions of wasted vendor
marketing money could never achieve.
Can ASP save you money and serve you right? What are your views?
>>Zentelligence: Setting the world to rights with the collected
thoughts and ramblings of the futurist writer, broadcaster and
Computer Weekly columnist Simon Moores.