Resolving the online/offline service conundrum using virtualization
(Last night just before I fell asleep I had one of those wonderful moments of complete clarity. One of those moments which, after a good nights sleep, tend to reveal themselves as embarrassingly flawed. That is what happens to me most of the time, but not always. Occasionally the clarity is real. Maybe this is one of those times. Maybe not. I don't know.)
Here is the conundrum in a nutshell. Online enterprise applications are a great idea. Putting all the complex moving parts of an application on the server side means that you - the end-user - need not worry about them. Online applications take away soooo much administrative pain that they should really require a doctor's prescription. With an online application, the vast majority of the application gets filed under SPP (SPP = Service Provider Problem). Administrative Bliss. Costs cut. Bottom line improves. Everyone is happy...
There is a significant catch of course. There is always a catch isn't there? The catch in this case is that enterprise applications cannot be relegated to the global internet/web cloud so easily. What about security? What about ownership? What about offline backups? What about vendor independence? What about disaster recovery? etc. etc.
We need some way to have all the benefits of online applications without the significant problems associated with caring for the server components ourselves. Why is looking after the server side so hard? Well, online applications are complex beasts. You will need all sorts of complex moving parts from operating systems to application servers to databases. Interpreters/parsers/engines/proxies/filters of all shapes and sizes. Looking after all this stuff is highly specialized and thus expensive. Put a couple of applications like this into a server room and you have built yourself a significant cost center.
Oh dear. What to do? Well, we could wait until software becomes simple. (Cue the laughter). Alternatively, we could find some way to wrap all the complexity of server-side applications up in some tidy little containers so that we do not have to look inside them. Two ways of doing this are currently gaining prominence. One is hardware-centric the other is software-centric.
The hardware-centric route is known as the "internet appliance". A physical box with flashing lights. You feed it power and an intranet connection and off it goes. Behind the flashing lights there is typically a Linux or Windows based bag-o-tricks that make the application run. Put the box on the network. Point your browser at it. Done. An example of this is the Google Search Appliance[1]
The software-centric route is known as "virtualization". Instead of shipping an application to a customer site as a complex set of moving parts that need to be installed on a host operating system, ship a complete stand-alone virtual operating system "box". An example of this is the Open Office-based groupware system known as o3spaces[2] which is shipped as a VMWare Appliance.
I like both approaches but I'm particularly fond of the software based virtual appliance concept. All the benefits of a "black box" without the physical hassles of actual boxes. I also like the obvious competitive energy that is driving virtualization at the moment. It just happens that 03spaces uses VMWare but there are many applications emerging that perform similar functions. VirtualPC[3], jumpbox[4], parallels[5], rpath[6], xensource[7] to name but five.
So here is what I think will happen. Software companies will develop server-side applications. They will entice business users into using them online for free. Once the potential paying customer is sold on the benefits, along comes the offer of a virtual appliance that provides the same benefits but runs on the customer's own Intranet. No complex software installation required. Just install the virtualized operating system image into whatever operating system you wish. Everyone is happy...
Perhaps the days of downloading stand-alone applications and worrying about installing them into a local environment are coming to an end. Perhaps disk space and CPU power becoming ever cheaper will drive the notion that downloading a complete packaged server-side application - from its operating system up - is a more cost effective way for the industry to grow.
Well, now that I've written it down, it still seems compelling to me. Maybe before I fall asleep tonight I'll find the fatal flaw in the argument...
[1] http://www.google.com/enterprise/gsa/index.html
[2] http://o3spaces.com/Page/sp19/nctrue/index.html
[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_PC
[6] http://www.rpath.com/corp/