The ability of the Cloud to decouple processes from the underlying technology that runs them is perhaps one of its most important and disruptive tricks. It is also the one that has the most power to break the autocracy of traditional IT vendors.
That autocracy can be seen in the natural assumptions of both IT vendors and users that business function X is now the fiefdom of software vendor Y, and its product Z can only be run on a technology stack provided by vendors A and B.
But wouldn’t be good if function X could be put together from a range of different components – smaller applications or services – that came from a range of different vendors and could be added or taken out of the function, supplanted by an alternative better suited to the specific task, and delivered to whatever technology is most convenient to the user. Even just being able to decouple use of product Z from the need to buy technology stack A and B would be a significant start to increasing user flexibility and business agility.
Here is a little example of exactly what I mean.
A recent new service announcement down at the client end of the Cloud technology stack demonstrates a classic example of running `this’ on `that’, where the pair are not natural bedfellows. OnLive is primarily a SaaS-based, games-oriented company, with Apple’s iPad being the targeted delivery vehicle of choice. But in a departure from that business model the company has used the games technology to develop Desktop, a SaaS-delivered implementation of Microsoft Office for the iPad.
I can’t help admitting that I would be amongst the first to ponder the question `why?’ I can’t think why anyone would want one. But then again, I have written before about observing people walking around with iPads on show and then, when the real work had to be started, pulling a laptop out of the bag. Certainly some of those will have been Mac laptops, but a good number were PCs running Office – if only because the rest of company was geared to a Microsoft infrastructure.
So by decoupling the process – using Office to do things in a familiar or compatible way – from the underlying platform – even a Netbook needs a chair to sit on to provide the necessary lap – puts at least some of the capabilities of the one onto the capabilities of the other - the iPad is good to be seen with and easy to use while standing, talking, and roaming around.
Whether they sell a bundle of them, or diddly squit, is something of a moot point – and making the entry point a free download with 2GBytes of storage is unlikely to hinder things. But the fact that the capabilities and functionality of one application geared to one technology stack can be delivered as a service to a client using a different technology stack has the potential to be a mjor evolutionary step offering profound implications.
For example, many business are already starting to twitch about the possibilities engendered by the `use-your-own-client’ movement, where people see no reason why they shouldn’t use their own laptop, Mac or iPad for work? Indeed there are some good straight forward commercial arguments in its favour.
The downside is managing the mish-mash of different client types in a world where some degree of order and control is definitely good for business.
The OnLive approach would seem to give an obvious solution. The more of the business environment that can delivered as SaaS, and the wider the number of client types the SaaS platform vendors can integrate into the management environment, the easier it becomes to shout `Bring it on’ to the bring-your-own community. Businesses will just run their services on staff clients, as SaaS, while controlling any cross over between the personal and business environments on each client. It will also control that client system’s personal access to the Internet to whatever is set by company policy – which could range from carte blanche to NEVER!
Now suspend disbelief for a second and extrapolate that onwards. Just about everything and anything that business needs could be made available as a SaaS service that could be delivered to whatever client the user felt appropriate.
Decoupling user need from process and technology specifics and all of that from the type of delivery vehicle, could free up businesses to act more quickly and more flexibly in response to business changes. The OnLive Desktop shows the way that developers should be thinking: even the oldest applications can still have a useful life if they can be put into a SaaS environment.
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