We’ve been speaking about the phenomenon for some time, but it finally appears to be happening: Software is becoming a service, not a product. CIO.com picks up on this in a current article, but people like Doc Searls have been talking about this in relation to open source since at least 2003.

What do you sell in open source? Services around the software, whether those services are support, Networks (update service, etc.), etc. What do you sell if you’re a SaaS company? Software delivered as a service/utility.

Between open source and SaaS, the software industry has changed forever, as CIO.com notes:

It is only by building such a layer of [service] abstraction that will enable IT’s focus to truly change from their traditional asset perspective (”what we have”), to the new value-oriented perspective (”what we deliver”). Furthermore, aggregating data at a service layer reveals far more potent information sources and the knowledge needed to drive service improvement and shift the culture and mindset of the IT organization.

Thinking of and delivering IT as a service grants IT to become part of the business, and not merely the dumb bits behind it. Open source and SaaS make it all happen. Savvy IT shops will invest in both.

… Source:The Open Road

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This entry was posted on Thursday, April 10th, 2008 at 8:08 am and is filed under Business and Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.