Applications Service Providers May Change Your Life

HWeissfield writes "ZDNet has an interesting article by Jim Seymour concerning the recent advances by ASPs and how this new paradigm of software use could potentially change the way that productivity is created." (More below.)

HWeissfield continues "I saw this as an unsurprising evolution of the way that the Internet is influencing our society today, but I question whether we can really leave critical applications and reports to someone other than ourselves. It may be common to use the terminal paradigm on mainframes where computing power is grandeur and reliable connections can be made, but what about the chaotic and unpredictable mass that is the Internet? Where could Linux fit into this structure that may be prevalent in the future?"

For one thing, it may mean "instant" commercial accounting and tax software for Linux, BSD, BeOS etc. without begging companies that publish such things for ports to your favorite OS. For example, Intuit, publisher of Quicken, Quickbooks, and TurboTax, is reportedly ready to roll out cross-platform, Web-based apps big-time. If they do this - and if their competitors follow them - it'll save a lot of small businesses, from the need to maintain a Windows or Mac box in a corner to run financial software after they've switched to Linux, *BSD or BeOS as their primary OS.

This is a "must read it all the way through" article. It's deep and thoughtful and (as HWeissfield points out) it raises many questions. Care to take a crack at answering some of them?

Comments

Looking before I leap

[Just Some Guy]

There are a few issues I'd demand to see addressed before I'd willingly switch to a remote application server:

• Backup.
  Local: Oh, damn, I deleted September?!? Hey, Matt, could you pop the September end-of-month DAT in?
  Remote: [hold music while my credit card charge for "advanced services" clears]
• Security. What security model does the service use? Does one root user have access to every user's data? If so, I want that job. Screw insider trading!
• Bandwidth. I'm sorry, but this seems to be glossed over too often. Yeah, I know, we'll all have our own private T-1s next year, and xDSL in our country retreats... Sure. For now, I suspect that the vast majority of personal users are browsing over analog, and I don't know too many businesses ready to upgrade their dual-channel ISDN to a DS-3 so that the secretarial pool can run WordPerfect. I don't care if it does get cheaper - so will the local hardware it would be replacing.
• The Slashdot Effect. Services will make design decisions based on expected average load, not peaks. What happens when I've absolutely, positively, got to have this report finished by noon, but it's final report time at Schmuckitelly University (who's a paid user of the same service)? Can the service (for a premium, even) guarantee that my requests can get a higher priority?
• Liability. What happens when the service deletes September (see above)? You can bet that there will be limited liability clauses left and right, so how far are you willing to trust their assurances?
• Better than local servers? Related to the Bandwidth entry, hardware is getting cheaper just as quickly as bandwidth (except for that $#!(*(%! RAM!). How can a remote server expect to remain as cost-effective as a local one? And how will you feel the first time that a service decides to subsidize their rental income with banner adds across the top of your spreadsheet? And what about when you realize that those banner ads are specifically targeted to whatever spreadsheet you're currently working on?

Maybe I'm wrong; I certainly hope so. But part of my paycheck derives from a healthy sense of paranoia. I just couldn't, in good faith, encourage my employer to jump on this particular bandwagon.