The Washington Post reported that Vongo, the all-you-can-view movie site run by Starz, has gone out of business. Well, really, technically, not out of business, they are moving all the content over to the Verizon service called Starz Play.
Which is fine - IF you're a Verizon customer. If you're not - you're S.O.L. after September 1st.
That means that all the movies that you may have paid for with your $10 per month subscription will no longer be viewable. OK - so it's not like having Salesforce or Google go belly up and taking all your data with it - but still, I think it's the "shot across the bow" that will wake some folks up to the realities of life in the cloud.
With all of these hosted solutions there's no warranty, no SLA, no guarantee about data loss, no language about what happens to your data if they just turn off the DNS.
What would happen to your data if one of these services just folded up? Presumably there would be dozens (hundreds?) of servers full of hundreds (thousands?) of companies data, email, spreadsheets, documents, memos, etc.
Who owns that data? The customer? The provider?
What if the provider just sells the entire data center full of servers to a third party - and doesn't bother to wipe the drives? And what happens if that third party then takes sensitive information and sells it or exploits it?
Who is liable?
As it is - you're responsible to back up your own data (even from a cloud provider) - but do you really do it?
I think as we go along the PaaS road - these questions will inevitably be answered - hopefully in the "right" way. Perhaps there is some room for a third party to come up with a solution to create a product that would allow companies (and individuals) back up their data in a painless, seamless way - for all of their cloud data.
One option that I think we'll see as a sort of stop-gap measure is that these types of applications will support a true disconnected model - by storing the data on the local drive in a lightweight SQL database that would then synch back up with the "main" cloud data store.
Hey - Servoy developers - I'm smelling an opportunity here...
Showing posts with label PaaS. Show all posts
Showing posts with label PaaS. Show all posts
Friday, August 15, 2008
Tuesday, July 01, 2008
The Coming Together of Web and Desktop Apps
Today Frank Ohlhorst did a review of Servoy for eWeek's Channel Insider. It was really a nice review - and it got me thinking (rare, I know)... in the future how far will the line blur between web and desktop applications?
I think for the short term - there's a lot of noise about where vendors *think* it should go. The market and the press has been announcing new paradigms and competing announcements for the-same-but-different tools to try to get developers to adopt their "new" platform.
There is so much confusion and noise out there about all the new technologies that I think we're getting away from the real question - what are real life developers doing to create real life applications (both web and desktop) that real users actually use?
I think there are as many answers out there as there are individual developers. Some are still using the "old school" 4GL products (Access, Alpha 5, FileMaker, FoxPro, Magic, Oracle Forms, PowerBuilder, Progress, etc.) and some are using 3GL languages and products (Basic, C, C++, C#, Cobol, Delphi, Java, .NET, RealBasic, VB, etc.) - because that's what they know and are comfortable with (or it's been dictated to them that they use those tools).
Some have turned to the "new" platform as a service (PaaS) offerings or virtual (100% cloud-based) offerings like Bungee, CogHead, Gears, Force.com, QuickBase, etc. opting for both the development and deployment models to be 100% online.
Yet others are jumping on the connected/disconnected (and "Rich Internet Application" - RIA) bandwagon with AIR, Gears, Flex/Flash, OpenLaszlo, and Silverlight.
Not to mention the mobile platforms that are coming out with their own flavors of operating systems (Android, iPhone, Symbian, etc.) that also may or may not have their own particular languages (Objective C, Xcode, etc.).
Ummmm.... yeah. And the list goes on and on and on and on. I personally think it will get even more "muddy" before it gets more clear. You can bet that there are zealots for each of the various approaches and tools and platforms. There are an equal number of detractors as well.
Everyone's got an opinion. But is anyone getting any work done?
I mean, it's all well and good to take a look at all the various technologies that are coming out - they're all trying to do the same thing: help developers develop stuff that end users will find engaging so that they be more productive - and actually get stuff done.
In my book - any tool that will allow you to reach that objective is the best tool to use.
It's not a one-size-fits-all world - and there will never be a one-size-fits-all language, tool, protocol or way of doing business.
Having said that - it's been my experience that end users, project stakeholders, CIO's and CEO's don't really give a rat's ass what the technology is - as long as it meets the business goals, and comes in on-time and on-budget.
And, in my opinion, THAT'S the problem. These tools are so complex, there is so much code to write, there are so many protocols to support, end user's expectations of how applications are "supposed" to behave are changing so rapidly - it's really difficult to find a tool that will help you be both productive ("get the job done") and easy-to-use ("get the job done on time") and flexible ("meet ever-changing business goals") - it's enough to drive developers nuts.
Couple that with the end-user requirements of a rich browser application, and/or a client/server application and/or a disconnected application that synchronizes, and now the water is even more murky.
Let's not even go down the road of the changing business climate of offering software as a service (SaaS) and the nacient platform as a service (PaaS) initiatives to put stuff in the "cloud" while at the same time coupled with ISV business model of selling on premises licenses...
It's for those reasons that I really like Frank's article on Servoy. Servoy is a tool that will give you the best of all worlds: standards-based, JavaScript/Java power, easy Eclipse-based RAD design - but it also is flexible enough to be extensible (Java), and allow you to sell it as an on premises solution, a SaaS solution (in the cloud with or without PaaS) - deploy as client/server and/or browser (100% HTML/CSS) and/or "headless" client (for use by web services, other Java applications or JSP) - while at the same time doing it ALL from ONE code base.
For my money - that's the best application to use. One that allows you to leverage what you know and handles all the code that's behind the scenes. Who wants to code things like connection pooling, data broadcasting, manage client state, write 1,000,00 SQL queries, etc.?
The part that developers need to develop is less about infrastructure and more about the "inside of the window." It's like an iceberg - 80% of the typical application's code is below the water line: the end user never sees it. They only see the 20% of the code on top.
If you can concentrate on the 20% of the functionality that the user interacts with - and have the other 80% handled for you automatically (but still have the flexibility to monkey with it if you want/have to) - you can finally be productive and actually DELIVER a secure client/server/web/offline application on time and on budget that end users will actually use.
Now that's bringing the desktop and web applications together in a way that makes sense.
Tuesday, April 08, 2008
PaaS Gets The Google Touch
It seems that even Google is getting the PaaS (Platform as a Service) religion. At their Campfire One "get together" Google announced an "early technology preview" of a new service they're calling the Google App Engine.
The idea is that Google has determined (like Force from Salesforce.com and Elastic Cloud Computing from Amazon) - that the so-called "last mile of service" - actually getting your application up and running somewhere on the web - can be a challenge.
They've set out to allow developers to get an application up on the web and running - and then scale it up to almost infinite capability - seamlessly and for free (for now). The platform will be limited to running applications in Python (WTF?), and they go out of their way to stress that they are not providing a virtual server or virtual instance of a machine, but rather, they are hosting the developer's application (only).
It comes with 500MB of persistent storage and enough CPU and bandwidth for about 5 million page views a month. For free. For now.
Although they also stress it is not "feature complete" and it's still in development, AND there is no word on what the actual pricing will be once it's out of development, AND they're limiting this preview to the first 10,000 lucky developers to sign up... it's still a very interesting development.
It seems that in the emerging world of the integrated stack (aka PaaS) I think we're going to see LOTS more announcements and competing platforms and standards in order to gain the most developer eyeballs.
Speaking of developers - it just seems to me that Google is slowly becoming the new Microsoft. That is, it has your mail (free), your Office-like apps (free), searching (free), image archive (free), and now also wants to host your applications.
This could be a bug or a feature, depending on how you look at it.
BUG: For all the privacy, head-in-the-ground-scardy-cat-types - it's "big brother." It also smacks of what Microsoft has been doing for years - locking developers into a proprietary integrated stack that is almost impossible to get out of - without completely re-writing all applications ever developed.
FEATURE: If you're a small Web 2.0 company that is looking to get bought by Google (and be honest - who isn't?) - then what better way to have Google become aware of your application and your company and your sustained pageviews - than to host it on Google's own infrastructure? I can almost hear the wide-eyed-we're-going-to-be-rich gear heads coding now...
For the gory details - check out the six (6) videos and the technical specs after the break...
The idea is that Google has determined (like Force from Salesforce.com and Elastic Cloud Computing from Amazon) - that the so-called "last mile of service" - actually getting your application up and running somewhere on the web - can be a challenge.
They've set out to allow developers to get an application up on the web and running - and then scale it up to almost infinite capability - seamlessly and for free (for now). The platform will be limited to running applications in Python (WTF?), and they go out of their way to stress that they are not providing a virtual server or virtual instance of a machine, but rather, they are hosting the developer's application (only).
It comes with 500MB of persistent storage and enough CPU and bandwidth for about 5 million page views a month. For free. For now.
Although they also stress it is not "feature complete" and it's still in development, AND there is no word on what the actual pricing will be once it's out of development, AND they're limiting this preview to the first 10,000 lucky developers to sign up... it's still a very interesting development.
It seems that in the emerging world of the integrated stack (aka PaaS) I think we're going to see LOTS more announcements and competing platforms and standards in order to gain the most developer eyeballs.
Speaking of developers - it just seems to me that Google is slowly becoming the new Microsoft. That is, it has your mail (free), your Office-like apps (free), searching (free), image archive (free), and now also wants to host your applications.
This could be a bug or a feature, depending on how you look at it.
BUG: For all the privacy, head-in-the-ground-scardy-cat-types - it's "big brother." It also smacks of what Microsoft has been doing for years - locking developers into a proprietary integrated stack that is almost impossible to get out of - without completely re-writing all applications ever developed.
FEATURE: If you're a small Web 2.0 company that is looking to get bought by Google (and be honest - who isn't?) - then what better way to have Google become aware of your application and your company and your sustained pageviews - than to host it on Google's own infrastructure? I can almost hear the wide-eyed-we're-going-to-be-rich gear heads coding now...
For the gory details - check out the six (6) videos and the technical specs after the break...
Wednesday, April 02, 2008
More On PaaS - TMA Systems
Yesterday I posted about how PaaS (Platform as a Service) was the new and upcoming way that companies were going to cut down on their infrastructure costs.
Well, I'm here at the TMA User Conference in Tulsa, OK and I can tell you first hand that PaaS is being implemented at not just the infrastructure level, but at the development level as well. In this press release Servoy and TMA announced that they were partnering to provide their customers with a new technology base for their CMMS (Computerized Maintenance Management Systems) system.
Now the interesting thing about Servoy as a platform versus more highly integrated (read: proprietary) systems like force.com is that Servoy gives you, the customer, the choice on how you want to deploy your SaaS solution.
There are a couple of extremes in PaaS:
Servoy gives you a choice of how you can deploy your solution: on your own internal server, on "traditional" ISP, on a PaaS server, or ANY combination thereof.
Your development platform matters as much as your deployment method. If you have tools that easily allow you to do both - you'll be that much more ahead of the game.
Well, I'm here at the TMA User Conference in Tulsa, OK and I can tell you first hand that PaaS is being implemented at not just the infrastructure level, but at the development level as well. In this press release Servoy and TMA announced that they were partnering to provide their customers with a new technology base for their CMMS (Computerized Maintenance Management Systems) system.
Now the interesting thing about Servoy as a platform versus more highly integrated (read: proprietary) systems like force.com is that Servoy gives you, the customer, the choice on how you want to deploy your SaaS solution.
There are a couple of extremes in PaaS:
- Configure it yourself from scratch and have at it (like Amazon's EC3 service)
- Use force.com and their proprietary Apex development environment
- Use Servoy and have a choice of deployment models
Servoy gives you a choice of how you can deploy your solution: on your own internal server, on "traditional" ISP, on a PaaS server, or ANY combination thereof.
Your development platform matters as much as your deployment method. If you have tools that easily allow you to do both - you'll be that much more ahead of the game.
Tuesday, April 01, 2008
PaaS The SaaS Please
Unlike most bloggers, I'm not going to write some kind of crazy story and then at the end say "April Fool's!"
No, being the serious blogger that I am, I'm going instead to talk a little about the emerging PaaS (Platform as a Service) movement especially in the SaaS (Software as a Service) world.
Sounds fun, huh? Bear with me for a minute...
PaaS is a relatively new term coined by Salesforce.com and their "force.com" platform offering. Although Amazon has been offering it for a lot longer with their elastic cloud (EC3) and virtual storage (S3) services - it's a term that's becoming equated with the concept of push-button infrastructure.
It's an appealing concept - you specify a configuration, push a button, and somewhere in the goey gob of the Internet a server is configured for you - and you're all set to go. You're charged by the type of machine you configure and your actual useage (usually by the hour + a small bandwith fee). You can (on most services) also scale up your hardware instantly by just adding more similarly configured servers - all via a browser interface.
If you're an ISV - this is an especially appealing prospect over the "traditional" hosting options that either tie you into a shared server or require that you buy and configure your own box to be "parked" at a host's connection.
In theory, if you're providing a SaaS solution (rented over the Internet rather than having it installed on-premises) - scalability is a good thing. Instant added bandwidth is a good thing. Predictable cost structure is a good thing.
Is there a downside? Ummmm... not that I can see.
You still have the flexibility of backing your database up locally - or even better - to another cloud-based server - so you (and your customers') data is protected. Probably better protected than if you set up your own server and have to manage it.
In a world of "give it to me NOW" and in the face of the ever-increasing speed of business - PaaS is going to be a bigger and bigger part of the SaaS landscape.
No, being the serious blogger that I am, I'm going instead to talk a little about the emerging PaaS (Platform as a Service) movement especially in the SaaS (Software as a Service) world.
Sounds fun, huh? Bear with me for a minute...
PaaS is a relatively new term coined by Salesforce.com and their "force.com" platform offering. Although Amazon has been offering it for a lot longer with their elastic cloud (EC3) and virtual storage (S3) services - it's a term that's becoming equated with the concept of push-button infrastructure.
It's an appealing concept - you specify a configuration, push a button, and somewhere in the goey gob of the Internet a server is configured for you - and you're all set to go. You're charged by the type of machine you configure and your actual useage (usually by the hour + a small bandwith fee). You can (on most services) also scale up your hardware instantly by just adding more similarly configured servers - all via a browser interface.
If you're an ISV - this is an especially appealing prospect over the "traditional" hosting options that either tie you into a shared server or require that you buy and configure your own box to be "parked" at a host's connection.
In theory, if you're providing a SaaS solution (rented over the Internet rather than having it installed on-premises) - scalability is a good thing. Instant added bandwidth is a good thing. Predictable cost structure is a good thing.
Is there a downside? Ummmm... not that I can see.
You still have the flexibility of backing your database up locally - or even better - to another cloud-based server - so you (and your customers') data is protected. Probably better protected than if you set up your own server and have to manage it.
In a world of "give it to me NOW" and in the face of the ever-increasing speed of business - PaaS is going to be a bigger and bigger part of the SaaS landscape.
Monday, February 04, 2008
Pondering the Cloud
I've been reading and hearing an awful lot about "cloud computing" over the past few months - and I don't think it's going to stop any time soon. I think, to a certain degree, it's the wave of what's to come.
It's sort of like the computing (r)evolution itself. No one really knows what's going to happen - they all just wait until someone is making money - or comes up with something that really resonates with people's pocketbooks - and all of a sudden "it's the future."
Think about centralized computers with "dumb" terminals, then personal computers, then VisiCalc and Excel (and office), then desktop publishing, then Mosaic, then the Internet, then Yahoo, then SalesForce.com, then iTunes, then Google, then AJAX, then SaaS (Software As A Service), then"offline computing", and now "cloud computing."
It seems like everyone is jumping on the modified SaaS bandwagon - not content in just offering up their services via the web (whether in native desktop clients or just via a browser) - but now they want folks to develop software on their platforms where they will do all the hosting as well.
This has some interesting impacts on how we do business. It will decrease the traditional IT costs - in the sense that no one has to babysit (or pay the cooling and utility bills for) a server room (or 5), and it means that developers can get applications up and running (at least simple ones) relatively quickly. Cloud computing could also benefit users who want to throw together an application and share it with others - without having to wait 3 years for an overworked IT staff to "get around to it."
Sounds good - if it didn't totally and completely suck.
I mean really, really suck. Maybe the technology just isn't "there" yet. I don't know about you - but I've tried a bunch of these online "cloud" development environments (CogHead, QuickBase, Rollbase, Yahoo Pipes etc.) and while there are good things to say about all of them - they are all very limited in what you can do - and really don't even come close to the robust applications you can create "offline."
Maybe I'm just too old - but I'm not really sure how much cool stuff you can create that:
Why can't we have both?
We need a smarter GUI tool that will unlock the data we already have - and one that will allow us to deploy that GUI over a native client (for hardware integration) and/or over a browser for multiple access (bonus points if you can do it from the same code base - because who the hell wants to learn .NET??).
We need a tool that will allow us to combine our ERP databases with our frontline business applications - and allow easy reporting and slicing and dicing - AND is easy enough to use so that we're not caught in "Excel Hell" (or "Google Docs Hell").
Oh, and IT should LOVE it - not grudgingly support it.
There is a tool. It's called Servoy. Check it out!
It's sort of like the computing (r)evolution itself. No one really knows what's going to happen - they all just wait until someone is making money - or comes up with something that really resonates with people's pocketbooks - and all of a sudden "it's the future."
Think about centralized computers with "dumb" terminals, then personal computers, then VisiCalc and Excel (and office), then desktop publishing, then Mosaic, then the Internet, then Yahoo, then SalesForce.com, then iTunes, then Google, then AJAX, then SaaS (Software As A Service), then"offline computing", and now "cloud computing."
It seems like everyone is jumping on the modified SaaS bandwagon - not content in just offering up their services via the web (whether in native desktop clients or just via a browser) - but now they want folks to develop software on their platforms where they will do all the hosting as well.
This has some interesting impacts on how we do business. It will decrease the traditional IT costs - in the sense that no one has to babysit (or pay the cooling and utility bills for) a server room (or 5), and it means that developers can get applications up and running (at least simple ones) relatively quickly. Cloud computing could also benefit users who want to throw together an application and share it with others - without having to wait 3 years for an overworked IT staff to "get around to it."
Sounds good - if it didn't totally and completely suck.
I mean really, really suck. Maybe the technology just isn't "there" yet. I don't know about you - but I've tried a bunch of these online "cloud" development environments (CogHead, QuickBase, Rollbase, Yahoo Pipes etc.) and while there are good things to say about all of them - they are all very limited in what you can do - and really don't even come close to the robust applications you can create "offline."
Maybe I'm just too old - but I'm not really sure how much cool stuff you can create that:
- Isn't being created and hosted for free by some .com 2.0 company
- Can match the look and feel of your other legacy applications
- Can interact with the hardware layer of PC's (think cash drawer or bar code scanner)
- Can broadcast data to other connected users to avoid session dirty reads and writes
- Are very useful beyond what people do with spreadsheets (online or traditional Excel)
- Can't easily get to
- Have to re-key into multiple systems
- Can't visualize the way you need it to
- Is incomplete based on your business role
Why can't we have both?
We need a smarter GUI tool that will unlock the data we already have - and one that will allow us to deploy that GUI over a native client (for hardware integration) and/or over a browser for multiple access (bonus points if you can do it from the same code base - because who the hell wants to learn .NET??).
We need a tool that will allow us to combine our ERP databases with our frontline business applications - and allow easy reporting and slicing and dicing - AND is easy enough to use so that we're not caught in "Excel Hell" (or "Google Docs Hell").
Oh, and IT should LOVE it - not grudgingly support it.
There is a tool. It's called Servoy. Check it out!
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