Software as a service

Wow that title is the latest buzzword!

Every IT Director who mentions that will be in for a good pay rise from his impressed boss!!

To define Software as a Service it is the idea of renting your IT software, or even your IT hardware for a monthly fee. All you have to do is pay each month, and you get the IT facilities you have been promised by your service provider. For example Google have just launched their beta (not yet finished) Google Apps service. All one needs is a web browser connected to the internet anywhere in the world, and you can access a good word processing and spreadsheet service. All your work is stored on Google's systems.

It is in contrast to buying the products needed and installing them for an upfront capital fee, and then having access to them forever (in theory) for no more charge. For example, buying a PC and printer, buying a copy of Windows software, an office application suite and a finance program.

Reportedly, "Google are firing an arrow" across Microsoft's ship with their recent launch of Google Apps, Google Docs and Spreadsheets, and other integrated features. They are reportedly aiming for the Microsoft Office user base. I will be reviewing the specific service from Google Apps very soon in another post on here. The features are promising but are not very well integrated yet.

For now I want to talk about the principle, the advantages and the disadvantages of software as a service.

I have no doubts this is going to become a very large market. How much a provider can charge people to use the service remains to be seen, but when normal competitive market forces take charge I don't think the fee to each user will be much. The Google Beta is available free at the moment.

For the home user, the concept of accessing a good word processor cheaper than buying an office suite is going to be too good to true. If your PC gets a virus your documents are safe and secure and cannot become infected. If your PC breaks, you get a new one, plug it into the internet and all your favourite programs are available instantly. On your lunch break at work you can write a personal letter. When you get home you can print it and post it on your personal stationary. No need to worry how to take it home. No need to worry about backups. You don't at the moment but you should!

For the small business (say less than 10 employees) an added advantage is that everyone can find and share the documents easily. No need to pay a consultant to configure a file server, make the disk available to all your network clients and train everyone how to save onto the file server's disk. How many times have you searched all the computers in the company to track down something written by someone who is out the office, or no longer with the company? Google is famous for search, and needless to say you can easily search all your company's files. No need for all your staff to be in the office. They can use their broadband link at home to access all the company's documents. It is even possible for more than one person in more than one location to edit a document at a time, a feature called collaborating. Bill in the UK and Eric in Germany can both work on a joint report very easily and efficiently.

For the larger business I expect you will need your own IT department to provide a customised service specific to your company's needs. Applications that employees can access will all be thoroughly tested and controlled to ensure they can be supported and can meet the needs of the company. You will want to take your own backups so you are confident they are safe and are managed to your standards. For example you will keep a backup from every day within a month. Then from the 1st day of every month for 3 years. Then backups from 1st January and 1st July will be kept forever. These will all be in fire-safe locations. Should anything be needed from a backup you know how long it will take to locate the correct media and restore from it. I still think some large company's will use internet based services for specific tasks, such as collaborating with remote workers, then copying the file to your company servers once they are complete. Accessing your internet filestore would be something of a lot of value to a competitor!

In summary there is a lot of benefits of this new idea, aside from spreading the cost monthly and not having old computers that are too slow to be any use in 3 years.

I have two principle concerns.

The one I will mention first is program updates and new versions. People don't like change. With bought software you are in control. You don't want the new version - simple, don't buy it. With a managed service the provider can and will change the service. They don't have to ask you, and if you don't like the new version, tough! You are tied to a contract and all your files are on their system.

My second is a very big concern. With legs and lots of hair! Longevity.

After you have written a letter you save it. Why? So you can access it again in the future to save time if you have to send it again. So you can copy it if you need to send a similar letter. So there is a record and you don't need to print a spare copy on paper and put it in your cupboard. Ask yourself how long you may want to go back in time when you search for something. If a company answered anything other than 'forever' to this question I would be very worried! When I started in IT I worked for a very large consultancy company. Half my time was spent trying to get documents off superceded systems, 5 1/4 floppy disks written by Wang's because people had a need for them.

What happens in 3 years time when there is a new technology? Google will not have customers for the old 'service' anymore and could switch it off. Bang. All your work has gone. How do you get it back? They will probably promise a migration path to the replacement service, but they don't have to and probably wouldn't disclose the charge for this in advance. What if the company providing your service becomes the next Enron and goes into administration? The chances are slim but it IS possible. More likely, suppose I have a billing dispute with my provider? If I don't pay they can lock my service!

Google do offer a 99.9% uptime guarantee to premium (paying) customers. Ah that's good it won't ever go down. Dig into the guarantee a bit deeper. If it does go down what then? Well you get a few free days extra service IF you know it went down and IF you claim! So you have lost a vital report that could mean the difference between win or loose in a multi-million dollar law suit. Who looses out? What is the uptime guarantee worth? 20p!! No, the guarantee was only for email, not the documents service. It also guaranteed uptime, not that your files would be safe. Plus the service credit cannot be converted to cash. If they lost my data I would be off to someone better in a flash.

In short, you are no longer in control of where and how your data is stored, and you are just hoping that it will always be there when you want it. Trust me on this. It won't. No-one will offer a guarantee worth having to promise availability in 10 years unless I pay a fortune for it.

These concerns are still an issue with some bought software that has to 'phone home' when it is installed. In 10 years its phone home call won't be answered. You will be stuck in a time limited trial version. Check you can do what you want in trial mode with your programs before relying on them.

I'm amazed no one else has picked up on this problem, and I'm gonna try and get some answers to it, if there is one. My advice? When a new format is released, print all your important old stuff onto paper quickly! At least you can still read that in 50 years time when we no longer have electricity and everything is powered by fresh air! There is nothing in the IT world that can guarantee that. You think there is a computer in use today that will still work in 50 years time? I'm taking bets :) Got to make up for the global pension shortfall somehow lol.

Did I mention my specialism in IT was Business Critical servers (working on a 4 hour from problem to fix helpdesk with one of today's largest IT manufacturers), High Availability, Backups, Fault Tolerance, Disaster Recovery and Contingency planning?

Chris

iTunes has some major faults

I have previously been very positive about the work of Apple, but iTunes is appauling. How can most people that review this software rate it as good?

Allow me to explain what I see as some of the issues are with this program:

1. Syncing with the iPod.

It can automatically sync when the iPod is docked. The sync operation works accurately. As the iPod needs docking to charge it mine is plugged in most of the time.

I regularly change iTunes, add music, edit the MP3 tags within my music files so it is all filed properly and modify playlists. I have lost count of the number of times I have gone away, or got to my car and gone to listen to new music or a new playlist and it is not on my iPod.

iTunes is well aware when I change anything. Why does it not immediately replicate when I make a change? I used to have an Orange SPV mobile which ran Windows Mobile. I loved this o/s- why are there no modern ones on an non-Orange network?? It's sync software was Microsoft ActiveSync. Immediately I add a contact in outlook the Activesync icon would flash and it would update my phone. Just what you expect.

How can someone who comes up with some really well designed stuff miss this one?? Grrrr.

2. You can't listen to and browse your music at the same time.

If I start an album playing in iTunes then continue to view and navigate my music library iTunes goes quiet after the current song finishes. It forgets I asked it to play a whole album. There may be some way round this by opening another window, but I've not sussed it out and shouldn't have to.

3. Podcasts.

I really like the Manager Tools podcast. Each week they provide hints and tips for managers. This is not topical and it is a series.

iTunes seems to take old podcasts out of its podcast section. Annoying, but the podcast people have a website. I have just been downloading some of the first podcasts which they often refer you back to. I cannot add these to the Podcast section in iTunes because they did not come down via its podcast download service. The latest podcasts are in the Podcast section and do not appear in the iTunes music library because they did come via the download service.

This really is very poor. To find them on the iPod they appear under a Podcast Genre which is not shown on the PC application.

4. Last played timestamp and Library sharing.

Whenever you play a song on your iPod or on your main iTunes PC a play count and last played timestamp are updated. This is great - I love searching for stuff I've never played when I want a change of music.

Also iTunes serves your local music to any other copy of iTunes on your network.

Two great features!

But when I access my iTunes library over my network from my PC in the lounge connected to my TV and decent hi-fi the album art in the music is not available, and the play count and last played figures do not update, ever. The Party Shuffle feature cannot see any of my remote music.

5. iTunes version updates.

Every time a newer minor version of iTunes come out they change the quick icons in iTunes to do difference features. Why is there not a customise option so I can make the 3 or 4 icons do what I want? I now have to go through to menus to get the visualiser on. There is also no longer a sync to iPod icon which used to make it easier to live with the first problem I discussed.

I can't find a way to contact the Apple team with my gripes. I won't give up trying and hope they fix these major issues in a potentially good program I am forced to use as an iPod owner.

Chris

Creating a two-tier society.

I have previously posted articles about road congestion and Gordon Brown's attitude to taxing everything. The main example of the latter is the new 'green tax' charged to all air travellers. This post is a follow-up on both and also the latest ideas about road charging.

Why does the treasury think the way to reduce congestion and tackle climate change is by charging people to do what they need to do. This will have a small effect on both but in the wrong manner.

There will be the less well off, students and pensioners that change their habits and bear the huge inconvenience of using the poor quality alternatives like buses and trains in order to save a few pounds each month. There will be the other group that can afford to pay the extra charges without any problem.

All these taxes do is create a two-tier society. The poor people are the ones who are effected as they can't afford the extra few pounds.

Is this actually what the government wants to achieve?

Someone posted this to another forum, and I felt it worth stealing! "Say there are 33 million vehicles on the road. If they do an average 7500 miles per annum each and we are charged 1p per mile the treasury will reap 2.5 billion pounds. The annual mileage quoted is minimal,as is 1p per mile. At 10p per mile and say 22500 miles per annum the take would be 75 BILLION PNDS per annum for "Greedy Gordon" - it's irresistable." Credits to Edward Corbett, Bridgend.

Incidently if you wish to add your name to a petition against road charging on the Downing Street website, follow this link: http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/traveltax/. There are already over 1 million signatures.

Chris

First Vista security bug!

It is 1st February, 1:30PM.

I am rolling on the floor laughing at this, but it is true.

A technique has been released to delete files from a Vista PC!!!!

Have you ever been to a website and unwanted music starts playing?

Are you aware that speech recognition is becoming more popular so you can talk to your PC instead of typing?

Can you guess where this is going?

Yep a website only needs an audio file dictating commands to the computer to delete files, then empty the trash bin and it will.

Until Microsoft cave in and remove all the content control that stops you playing your own videos you have paid for on your computer, and stop taking control of what you can do with YOUR OWN PC this is gonna get far worse.

Their T&Cs let them delete anything they want to from your PC. Dangerous when viruses find a way into this mechanism!

Keep XP and sit back and laugh!!

Chris

Update: Vista's integrated virus scanner is worst on the market.