The future of sofware

How can I cover such a broad subject in one blog post...

Well it's nigh impossible..

But to summarise there are 3 key trends which I think will shape the next decade:

Social Networking
Email, I believe, is becoming non existant. I receive many important notifications through my facebook account, or my linked in account, and the richness and relevance of this information is greatly extended in comparison to a singular email.
Not only will Social Netoworking drastically change the way every marketer in the world operates (mass email marketing is all but dead right now unless its context specific, segmented, and drip fed), Social Netoworking will become a unified shared platform of user authentication and a source for data enrichment for every software platform in the future. Social Networking will replace email. Facebook or Google or another vendor will incorporate social networking tools as a corporate email replacement option.
Social Netoworking will drive the meta-internet, and will also drive context based content. I will have a single social profile, which every device I own or software I use will authenticate through. I will log into my internet enabled on demand pay tv service at home, with my social network login. Then advertisements on television will be delivered directly to me contextually based on my social network profile. The games I play on my TV will have in game product placement, driven by the data in my social network profile. Social networking will be the channel for every form of communication we have, whether it be making a phone call, sending a message, having a birthday party, or running a corporate event.

Mobility
The computer screen will be relegated to one of the least used forms of accessing your software.
Increasingly, internet access is being embedded into every electrical device we use. Initially this in the form of mobile devices, such as blackberries and iphones etc. This will be extended to absolutely everything.
What does this mean?
It means that we need a singular channel for software delivery.
In the past, for example, microsoft, would offer different 'versions' of software for each platform you wanted to install the software on, so you'd download MS App for your Windows Vista PC, then a different version for your Apple (if it was offered), then a different version for your phone, then a different version for you Pocket PC... the list would go on.
As the number of devices increases to infinity, there is no way any software vendor can offer their software on every possible device.
How can we deliver software to any and every device, without the need for versioning....
The answer is Internet based software.
Ubiquitous connectivity will be paramount, and wireless technology will be the primary means of internet access. Every Internet enabled electronic device will come with an ability to automatically connect to a wireless internet provider (where it be Mobile based technology or long range Wi-Fi / Wi - Max style networks).
We will access our software, as a service, and we will expect it to be internet enabled and accessible through every electronic device we own.

Cloud Computing
If you take these first two trends, you will notice they both indicate that the internet will become the primary source of information and primary channel for information delivery.
That said, in 10 years time, I believe every piece of software used by an organisation or an individual will be hosted by a cloud computing infrastructure. The IT department will no longer manage servers or networks, just simply manage a constant internet connection. IT managers and CTO's will no longer talk in megabytes, but simply be drivers of organisational change and operational efficiency through the access and placement of information.
Look at Google, salesforce.com, Amazon, Facebook, Linked In, Microsoft Azure, SAP By Design, the list literally goes on and on.
There will be a convergence between consumer and business based cloud computing infrastructures. Integration between software will turn from being extremely difficult coded connections between different systems, to being all Web Services or other Web XML based. Pre built connectors will dominate the integration space and even custom integration will be able to be developed quickly. When you subscribe to Google Apps, or Microsoft Azure, you will be able to almost instantly, connect it to your Corporate Facebook account, your salesforce.com system, your Amazon S3 account, your On Demand Business Intelligence platform, your On Demand Telephony account... more and more and more.
Microsfot Windows be slowy deteriorate from being an operating system, to becoming a means of accessing the internet. The Operating System market will commodotise and maybe Google, Apple, Linux, another commercial vendor will build a lite OS which essentially be a window to the internet, as the internet will house every piece of data, and every application we need in our home and business lives.


So the advice I can give, if you are involved in making any decision about software strategy for your organisation, keep these trends in mind, and partner with vendors who share this vision.

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