Google apps begins software as a service paradigm shift

Stan Beer
Tuesday, 29 August 2006 19:08

Opinion and Analysis

One of the big costs of setting up small businesses is the IT infrastructure and a major portion of that cost is software. A number of web based services providers aim to change the software paradigm to web services and Google is leading the charge.

Google already has a growing stable of web-based office productivity services for small businesses, recently collected under the umbrella called "Google Apps for your Domain". Today, the first limited bunch of applications includes an internet messaging and telephony application; and an online organizer.

Soon Google will include office productivity tools, such as a wordprocessor and spreadsheet. Then expect an online database and presentation package. After that, expect enterprise applications, payroll, financials, business intelligence, and the list goes on.

All the software applications can eventually be delivered as web services. What's more they can be funded in a variety of ways and they can be delivered on any platform that supports the internet.

There is of course the limitation of internet bandwidth. However, in much of the developed world this is no longer an issue. For the laggards, like Australia and even the US, this will also soon be a non-issue.

There is also the issue of storage and security. Service providers, such as Google and Microsoft have already signalled their intention to get into the data center business in a big way. Many large organizations currently outsource their data centers to service providers. Outsourcing storage to an application service provider is merely an extension of this concept.

For the business that wishes to minimize the cost of its IT infrastructure, software as a service presents an irresistible alternative. The time appears to coming soon when that alternative will be practical. For Google that will be a sweet moment. Microsoft, on the other hand, will find itself in the position of wishing to catch the new wave, while weighed down by baggage full of legacy software.