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The Downsides of Software as Service

Posted by Zonk on from the with-a-little-ranting-to-boot dept.

JustinBrock writes "Dvorak's article yesterday, entitled Don't Trust the Servers, argues that the danger of software as a service was highlighted when 'the WGA [Windows Genuine Advantage] server outage hit on Friday evening and was finally repaired on Saturday. It was down for 19 long hours.' The whole fiasco raises an interesting perspective on the software as a service 'fetish'. Dvorak highlights it hypothetically: What if the timeline were reversed, and we were moving from online apps to the desktop. Hear his prophecy of the marketing: 'You can image the advertising push. "Now control your own data!" "Faster processing power now." "Cheaper!" "Everything at your fingertips." "No need to worry about network outages." "Faster, cheaper, more reliable." On and on. I can almost hear the marketing types brag about how much better "shrink wrap" software is than the flaky online apps. The best line for the emergence of the desktop computer in a reverse timeline would be "It's about time!"'"

9 of 326 comments (clear)

  1. When is the last time Dvorak... by djh101010 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'm trying to think of the last time I read an article by Dvorak, and said "You know, he's got a good point". It's almost like he intentionally trolls his readership by stating the most outrageous possible point of view, just to stir up hits and discussion.

    1. Re:When is the last time Dvorak... by timster · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I can! It's a new funding model, necessary for the continued existence of giant software factories like Microsoft. The upside is that you no longer have to figure out ways to persuade your customers to buy the new version of your software, which has become more and more difficult (how many features can you add to a word processing app, anyway?)

      The upside to the customer is not so easy to find, unless you consider the possibility that with all this hypothetical easy money flowing in, Microsoft would be able to make a better product.

      --
      I have seen the future, and it is inconvenient.
    2. Re:When is the last time Dvorak... by Toonol · · Score: 5, Insightful

      This article. He's got a good point.

      "Software as a service" should be viewed with the same suspicion as "Trusted Computing." Something so bundled in Marketing, with no particular benefits to the consumer, has to be a money/power grab.

    3. Re:When is the last time Dvorak... by Tackhead · · Score: 5, Insightful
      > I'm trying to think of the last time I read an article by Dvorak, and said "You know, he's got a good point". It's almost like he intentionally trolls his readership by stating the most outrageous possible point of view, just to stir up hits and discussion.

      "This time." Centralization and decentralization has always been a pendulum sort of affair, varying with the relative costs of bandwidth, CPU, and storage.

      Once upon a time, there was the mainframe. Nobody ever got fired for buying (or more accurately, leasing) IBM!

      Then came the microcomputer. Decentralize! Applications run right on your desk! Buy Apple! No more monthly payments to IBM! (At 9600 baud, dumb terminal bandwidth is expensive. 8-bit micros are cheap!)

      Then came the dickless workstation. Oops, "diskless". Centralize! It's a client/server world! Buy Oracle, and run it on your Sun! No more huge capital outlays for PCs that become obsolete the day they're purchased! (Workstations are expensive, but this new ethernet stuff is cheap!)

      Then the PC-as-workstation. Decentralize! Don't rely on that expensive server! (Doesn't matter how much cable you run, if you have 100 users trying to render the Sistine Chapel on X Terminals, bandwidth and server-side processing power are shockingly expensive again, local storage and processing power are suddenly cheap again.)

      We're currently on our way back to the server. This time, the excuse is DRM. An application that doesn't exist locally can never be used locally once the vendor decides to kill it.

      But ultimately, the root cause is that bandwidth is relatively cheap again. Doesn't matter whether the application is Windows (which needs to call the mothership for patches every few days) or Steam (for the same reason).

    4. Re:When is the last time Dvorak... by Ironsides · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I can think of one, possibly two upsides to software as a service.
      1) Software provider has an 'incentive' to ensure the product is bug free or that the bugs get fixed quickly. With shrink-wrap software, they have your money and are providing fixes for free.

      2) This is an accounting style advantage. Say, you have the option to pay $300 for a software suite up front, or $5/month for as long as you use it. Most of us would go with the $300. Except, what if the $5 gives you free upgrades forever? Now, what if it was $1.50/month? Here we start getting into a grayer area about it being cheaper to pay per month than up front, due to about how much money you could make off of the base cost in interest on investments.

      --
      Fly me to the moon Let me sing among those stars Let me see what spring is like On jupiter and mars
  2. Let's imagine another hypothetical by Wuhao · · Score: 5, Funny

    Let's imagine another hypothetical: one where Dvorak is a respected columnist who is taken seriously. I can see the Slashdot comments now: "Wow, another Dvorak article! Hooray!" "No one understands the industry better than Dvorak!" "This is one of the most insightful and valuable things I've read all week!"

    Of course, this is just a hypothetical, and like the one in the article itself has little to do with reality.

  3. Dvorak? by puck01 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Did anyone else have to do a double take on the author of this article. The more I read, the more I'm thinking it can't be Dvorak right? This is pretty sensible. Rechecked the author when I was done and said, "huh"

  4. Reasons for Service Software by orionop · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The article make the assumption that everything is moving from a local desktop computer on to the internet. It is the same with all of those webOS people. There is a time and place for both local and remote services on computers. The WGA has to be remote because windows is cracked so easily on a local scale (not that WGA poses to much of an obstacle). Things like google documents is useful for having a decentralized work environment for papers and makes collaboration easy. However, that does not make office suites extinct...it is simple another option; and since when are more options a bad thing?

  5. Damnit, Dvorak by Applekid · · Score: 5, Funny

    Great. I happen to agree that putting things in networked services just for the sake of having it in networked services is a waste of resources. But since Dvorak came right out and said it now I haven't got a argumentative leg to stand on. It's like a child molester agreeing with me that we ought to have more public parks.

    Next thing you know he'll declare how much he likes pizza, completely undermining my fondness of it.

    --
    More Twoson than Cupertino