Business Changes Moving to Software as a Service
What kinds of change can a business expect moving to Software as a Service? Perhaps a look at Microsoft Azure may give us some ideas.
Before I dig in to changes too much, let me remind us that the concept of timeshare utilization of large resources is not a new concept. Mainframe machines were often shared in this fashion because of the high cost of hardware and software. DEC even clustered their midrange machines long before there were PC based clusters.
Not being an accountant, I would guess there will be accounting changes due to the difference in purchasing services opposed to purchasing large hardware devices. For example, you wouldn’t need your own SAN and servers.
Businesses are already used to purchasing internet access based on utilization which varies according to need. With SaaS they have the ability to pay accordingly to utilization of computing power as well, based on load, while still handling peaks. Instead of purchasing enough power for the highest peak need, they are able to purchase resources on demand, and give it back when no longer needed.
Compliance with various regulatory rules would be partially outsourced due to the certifications already provided by Microsoft hosting the Azure platform.
Small businesses using Azure would be able to utilize software previously out of their financial constraints due to reduced cost in the Azure platform.
Anthony writes in with a concern that is common to us all because we have worked with Microsoft for many years, and experienced the changes they bring.
Anthony:
I was mostly curious if SAAS was Microsoft’s ultimate vision, goal or aim? In other words, are we still going to be able to develop independent stand-alone software or are we all going to be dependent upon Microsoft for anything and everything we do or develop? I always get nervous when these kinds of things get brought up (like the Cloud and/or hard drives being removed from computers in the future so we all must connect to the ether collective). Except for server/client types of scenarios, I generally don’t see a need or benefit of running software on a remote server instead of the local machine, except [maybe] to guarantee Microsoft a steady cash flow.
I don’t work for Microsoft, nor do I represent them in any fashion. They have stated SaaS is going to be the future technique for provisioning software. That doesn’t mean that the software would have to be hosted on Microsoft SaaS platforms. Many already provide SaaS today while hosting the software on proprietary machines.
As I think about the problem from the perspective of Microsoft, think about the benefit they gain by hosting the software? They control the hardware and software having benefits such as
- Reducing the number of devices that must be tested
- Control over all software updates
- Reduced distribution costs
- Reduced support costs
- Reduced Piracy
- Reduce Competition
I’m sure Azure won’t be the only game from Microsoft for years to come. However, when they talk about doing things like removing heterogeneous queries from SQL Server in the next release, I think we can see the impact Azure is having on their product line. SQL Azure is restricted to not being able to execute a query across multiple databases, let alone handle linked servers. This restriction is finding its way into versions of SQL Server we would host ourselves.
Well, that’s a lot for one day. If you’d rather share more of your thoughts than read mine, feel free to drop me a note at btaylor@sswug.org.
Cheers,
Ben
$$SWYNK$$
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