Le mercredi 09 novembre 2005 à 20:27 -0500, Alex Janssen a écrit : > Chad Smith said the following on 11/09/2005 11:31 AM: > > >Gates memo warns of 'disruptive' changes > > > >http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9588_22-5940792.html?tag=nl.e589 > > > >In a memo to top company executives, the software giant's chairman ponders > >the challenges posed by a host of online competitors. > > > >It seems MS is more worried about Writely - http://www.writely.com/ - than > >it is about OpenOffice.org. > > > >That's not a slam against OOo, merely a suggestion that a online version of > >OOo (like, perhaps, the one Google is developing) would be a good idea right > >about now.
> I don't think writely.com or windows live or office live will be > replacing OOo in my office any time soon. I know that you can speculate > that it might, but it won't. Any ASP software offering will face three big hurdles in an entreprise context : - oldish browsers, so can't do modern HTML - security. You can bypass security for a while by using only standard http ports, but I assure you the security team will find out about you soon enough - bandwidth. This is the worst of all. Big corps have fat pipes but they're usually only just as big as they needed to be two years ago, and for an ASP app that means starvation, big latencies (+proxies...) and furious users. (I spent 3 years doing R&D + Support for an ASP solution) So ASP is more a home solution today. Generalised broadband helps a lot. In the Office context that won't impact MS revenues directly (lots of home installations are either pirated or bundled with the computer), but could have huge side-effects by teaching people they could use other tools than office to manage their documents. > We like having our software run locally and having our data local, not > on someones server somewhere in internetland. Just imagine someone you > don't know filtering through your company data without your knowledge. > It could happen if you give someone else control over your data. This OTOH is not a big problem. People have yet to be educated about data safety (spammers are working on it) any piece of official-looking paper presented by a smiling marketoïd ensuring the data is "safe" will overcome the objections of the security team. Why do you think the big Mastercard/Visa security breach of last may was possible ? No one tracks sensitive data over time. (and usually people don't even consult their security team when buying ASP. It's out of the entreprise network, so they think they don't have to bother) This is why BTW entreprise security teams won't ever say an ASP solution is unsecure and should not be chosen. They'll make it unattractive by limiting the bandwidth it needs. And then ask for a huge budget to improve internet access to the levels required by the app. Usually it's sufficient either to kill the project, or get the procurement manager in deep denial saying the network is "good enough" and users should just cope with the latencies (a great recipe to get an app hated by everyone). Regards, -- Nicolas Mailhot
