Software as a service, software engineering

Editor's Notes

1. The web’s current success mostly thanks to the bandwidth technologies. opening the doors for companies to do things they could not before we had companies trying to do Saas like Corel w/ WordPerfect Dumb terminals, back to the mainframe Not custom software that would open the doors for trying to please everyone custom software means things are more tightly coupled
2. One of the typical examples is Salesforce.com’s CRM application for communication industry, which standardizes sales processes and customer services. About 30 companies, including AOL and Nokia, are current users of this on-demand software application.
3. An embedded system is a special-purpose computer system, which is completely encapsulated by the device it controls. Most of the time, the hardware manufacturer has to provide embedded software when they sell hardware to users.
4. Create a consistent application environment for all users through access to the same versions – compatibility – Implementation fees are significantly lower than purchasing proprietary software and hardware.
5. Another mitigating factor is need for disconnected use. Many users, such as traveling salespeople, need access to data while offline. Some apps have synchonization
6. The bigger the hard drives the bigger the applications get Cost of software has stayed the same or gotten higher Even some small to medium companies are using pirated software cause they cannot afford it I worked for a company that only installed products like huge Accounting packages as consultants. Made lots of cash due to long days to setup package
7. A well-designed SaaS application is scalable, multi-tenant-efficient, and configurable.
8. - may be the most significant paradigm shift that an architect accustomed to designing isolated, single-tenant applications has to make. - when a user at one company accesses customer information by using a CRM application service, the application instance that the user connects to may be accommodating users from dozens, or even hundreds, of other companies
9. a single application instance on a single server has to accommodate users from several different companies at once, writing custom code to customize for the application for one end-user will change the application for other customers as well. Instead of customizing the application in the traditional sense, each customer uses metadata to configure the way the application appears and behaves for its users. The challenge for the SaaS architect is to ensure that the task of configuring applications is simple and easy for the customers, without incurring extra development or operation costs for each configuration.
10. 1. This is not a new thing since companies have been doing this for a while like adobe and hotmail ) 2. Downfall – sometimes forced to upgrade (no support for older versions) …can get expensive 3. Not around a lot anymore. Leased software is not capitalized and is considered an expense 4. Upgrade happened at host site…analyst believe 25% of all software will use this model in the next 5 years
11. loss of support by the SaaS provider means not only the loss of the application functionality but access to all of the proprietary data along with it. Escrow generally refers to the placing of property which is the subject of a commercial transaction (money, title deeds, software source code, etc.,) into the hands of a trusted third party for safekeeping – does not have to be the provider going under i.e. rim law suit The article mentioned that the decision was similar to buying or leasing a car or real estate. Cars and Real estate are not similar. Real estate have more tendency to appreciate Opportunity cost of using the money for investments instead of purchasing the software outright There are so many factors in determining if one should lease or buy that you should use and accoutant … each company is different