When I recently came across the below Blog overview, I immediately connected it with the world I'm currently immersed in - IaaS or SaaS (Software as a Service). It's author no doubt has a profound impact on the design of his business and in turn it's impact on some of the world's most recognised brands and business leaders. The quote is as follows:
" I believe that it is only a matter of time before enterprise software consists of only four types of application: publishing, search, fulfilment and conversation. I believe that weaknesses and corruptions in our own thinking about digital rights and intellectual property rights will have the effect of slowing down or sometimes even blocking this from happening.
I believe we keep building layers of lock-in that prevent information from flowing freely, and that we have a lot to learn about the right thing to do in this respect. I believe identity and presence and authentication and permissioning are in some ways the new battlegrounds, where the freedom of information flow will be fought for, and bitterly at that.
I believe that we do live in an age of information overload, and that we have to find ways of simplifying our access to the information; of assessing the quality of the information; of having better tools to visualise the information, to enrich and improve it, of passing the information on.
I believe that Moore’s Law and Metcalfe’s Law and Gilder’s Law have created an environment where it is finally possible to demonstrate the value of information technology in simple terms rather than by complex inferences and abstract arguments.
I believe that simplicity and convenience are important, and that we have to learn to respect human time.
I believe we need to discuss these things and find ways of getting them right. And I have a fervent hope that through this blog, I can keep the conversations going and learn from them. "
JP Rangaswami - Chief Scientist - SalesForce.com
There is no hiding the fact that Thomson Reuters and other traditional "publishing" houses are scared, very scared, of what new technology "search" solutions are doing to their revenue models. One such firm is the young technology firm XPI Inc. from Toronto, which I'm assisting to establish their Australian office. While my focus is on customer discovery and validation and the scaling of this, I can't help but get engaged with the exciting "big data" trends unfolding in this space.
And keep an eye out for the trending conversations lately on Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). You can bet IBM will be keen to lead this vertical.