COMMENT
The future of software is a subject we've been paying a lot of attention to on silicon.com recently.
The CIO Jury took a long hard look at software before ending up with a split decision as to whether the cloud was the future of enterprise software. It was also the subject of our third CIO Series event last week, where a group of the UK's top CIOs sat down to discuss one of the big issues facing IT.
There's been a huge amount of coverage of the cloud in particular in recent months - even reaching the rarefied heights of the evening TV news programmes. But increasingly I'm wondering whether the interest in the cloud reflects a deeper malaise in the enterprise software space.
Instead of arguing over the merits of various technologies much of the discussion around enterprise software is now based around the delivery method. It's an important conversation to have but to me it's a bit like giving up worrying about what the software does and debating the colour of the box it comes in, instead.
Perhaps the shift in the debate is telling us this: we've had enough innovation for a while and the only thing worth discussing is whether the software is loaded onto your servers or held in some datacentre in the cloud.
When I speak to CIOs many are less interested in the next wave of innovation than in getting the most out of what they have already. Few companies seem to have mastered squeezing all the benefit out of existing software (and even fewer have cracked the ever-painful problem of getting different pieces of enterprise software to play nicely together).
So where does this leave us? Software vendors short on ideas and CIOs reluctant to spend money on new licences until they've digested what they have. Time for everyone to pause and catch their breath perhaps, or simply a sign the next big thing is about to blow away all our conventional expectations again.
I'm sure there are still areas of software where not all the battles have been fought and where there is still a great need for innovation. Search for example is still clearly in its infancy and no doubt there are plenty of other areas where great ideas are still welcome.
Which areas of software do you feel still desperately need innovation? Let me know by posting a reader comment below.
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Comments
There are 5 comments. Join the discussion
1. Stuart Fawcett
With software tools becoming more complex, the cost of managing their life cycle increases in terms of both cash and required expertise. Cloud computing offers to remove much of the pain and end point costs of software ownership, rental models would allow costs to more readily track business requirements.
One major concern remaining is data security, the solution to which seems to be internal application encryption. It seems that something is missing in the database space where access to individual encrypted records is verified by the current role of the user. I’d expect to see a hierarchal access control system that allows members of a group with defined roles to see one row but not the next, an indexing by security profile. Then a database is inherently inaccessible unless your part of the controlling hierarchal group. Could a niche database player steal market share with a certifiably secure database?
2. Doug Lautzenheiser
Innovation is needed right on the front-line where the person meets the computer: the User Interface.
We have accepted as standard the browser with its keyboard and point-and-click interfaces. Innovations seem to be mere extensions. For example, instead of using a mouse, you can use your finger on a touch-screen.
Today's "Gee Whiz" innovation is multi-touch, demonstrated by CNN's Magic Wall, iPods, and some tablet PCs. Instead of one finger, you can use two!
We need a whole new paradigm for communicating with computers. Maybe we cannot jack into our skulls for thought-control yet, but surely we can think of something more productive than poking computers with our fingers.
3. JS Hatcher - ipVA
Maybe CIO's should look inward as well for innovation? The focus of the post seems to place CIOs looking outward to other companies to innovate (as purely consumers), when they may get a lot of benefit from trying to capture some of the innovation taking place inside their own organisation.
Not an option for every company for every software solution , but we've seen time and time again that many companies fail to record and exploit their internal innovations. When they do so, they often produce an amazing number of inventions that can get turned into building up the business.
4. Richard Hewitt
I agree that we are reaching a watershed in software innovation. There are, after all, a finite number of services that people want, although it is likely that new products and services will come to market that we never realised we needed.
The boom of software is over and we are now seeing a more gentle growth in the space, the financial crisis is going to distill this even further.
One area that is going to grow rapidly is Mobile\Wireless as we all start to expect the same services when on the move as we have on the wired web. Ubiquitous connectivity may be a while away but the big players are already preparing for this.
5. G.Nel
Very nice read about the future of software...I think even hardware is going to 'fuse' into software in the future,i.e.,we will be able to update our hardware instead of buying new one everytime we want.