End of Software, The: Finding Security, Flexibility, and Profit in the On Demand Future

Book description

Do you know what is the real cost of your software? Before you reach for a calculator, be forewarned that it's a trick question. Even technology industry analysts and seasoned IT executives have difficulty putting a hard figure on the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) of today's enterprise application solutions. What makes the equation so tricky is the sheer number of variables that must be factored in, many of which cannot be lined up in a neat column and reconciled, such as issues of security, availability, performance, problem resolution and change management. The End of Software: Transforming Your Business for the On Demand Future, by Dr. Timothy Chou, is a groundbreaking book for business managers and executives that challenges conventional approaches to business software and proposes new alternatives to managing and maintaining the systems that companies depend on.

Read What Industry Experts Have to Say:

  • "Whether you rely on computer software to run your business, create software solutions, or invest in software companies, you are facing the shift from software as a product to software as a service. In The End of Software, Dr. Timothy Chou makes the case for Software on Demand and shows you who's already out there creating and using this new model." Fred Magner, Chief Information Officer, Unocal Corporation

  • "As a pioneer of the On Demand delivery model, Dr. Chou challenges certain conventions long held by the software industry. The End of Software provokes industry participants to re-think how big software should be packaged, sold and delivered in the future." Stephen Wong, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Embarcadero Technologies

  • "Dr. Timothy Chou's book The End of Software presents a logical argument for the shift from selling and buying software, or the promise of the value that software represents, to selling and buying the actual value that software can bring to a user. This is very persuasive, especially when you consider the legacy of software vendors, who are notorious for over-promising and under-delivering. As Dr. Chou so clearly understands (and why shouldn't he-he's lived it), this new delivery method simply makes sense. But the world is often slow to change; as keen observers of the technology industry, we'll be watching closely." John S. DiFucci, Senior Software Analyst, Managing Director, Bear, Stearns & Co. Inc.

Table of contents

  1. Copyright
    1. Dedication
  2. What readers are saying about The End of Software
  3. Preface
  4. About the Author
  5. Acknowledgments
  6. Introduction
  7. Why Does IT Cost So Much?
    1. Where Does It All Go?
    2. How Much Did I Really Pay?
    3. High (Cost) Availability
    4. Dealing with Disaster
    5. The Cost of Security
    6. Performance: Pay to Play
    7. Change Management
    8. So Where's the Good News?
    9. Choosing Wisely
    10. The Capability Maturity Model
    11. Measuring Operations
    12. Conclusion
  8. What Has the Industry Done About IT?
    1. The Race Is On
    2. Challenging the Status Quo
    3. The Human Factor
    4. Repeat After Me…
    5. Automation
    6. A Brief History
    7. Location, Location, Location
    8. Flexibility
    9. The On Demand Solution
  9. Location, Location, Location
    1. The Law
    2. Any Port in a Storm
    3. Connecting the Wires
    4. Infranet: A Corporate-Quality Internet
    5. Back to Why Location Matters
    6. What Are You Made Of?
    7. My Place or Yours?
    8. My Place
    9. Commercial Net Lease Realty @Oracle
    10. Your Place
    11. Charles Marcus @Customer
    12. Conclusion
  10. It's About the Performance
    1. Cost of Poor Performance
    2. Throw Another Box at It
    3. How Much Do You Need?
    4. I Want It Now
    5. Enter DebitCredit
    6. Waste Not, Want Not
    7. An Appropriate Response
    8. The Server Is Where?
    9. Virtual Reality
    10. The Geeky Part
    11. What the Other Guys Are Up To
    12. Planetary Scale Computing
    13. Query on Demand: Google
    14. Us, Too
    15. Automatic Performance Management
    16. Conclusion
  11. You Can Never Be Too Available
    1. Are You Saying That 99% Isn't Good Enough?
    2. Making Yourself More Available
    3. Call the Exterminator
    4. Beyond the Bugs
    5. The State of the Art
    6. Recovery-Oriented Computing
    7. Building for Recovery
    8. Suit of Armor
    9. Fixing the People
    10. Can I Have a Do-over?
    11. Error Injection
    12. High Availability in Real Life
    13. When the Unthinkable Happens
  12. Batten Down the Hatches
    1. A Reason to Lose Sleep
    2. Where to Start?
    3. Virtually Private
    4. Know Thyself—and Thy People
    5. Password, Please
    6. Security As Policy
    7. Audit Planning
    8. The Next Big Thing
    9. Availability Meets Security
    10. Trustworthy Computing
    11. Sometimes It's Just Personal
    12. Conclusion
  13. No Problem, No Worries
    1. The Impact of Bugs
    2. Fixing the Process
    3. Assisting Technology
    4. Just Try It
    5. Does It Work?
    6. Working It Out
    7. Moving Quickly
    8. Back to the Bugs
    9. CEMLI
    10. It's Still Not Going to Be Perfect
    11. Faster = Better
  14. The Quick Change Artist
    1. Let Someone Else Be the Guinea Pig
    2. It's a Big Deal
    3. And Then There's the Training
    4. So, Where's the Upgrade?
    5. This Tape Will Self-destruct in 10 Seconds
    6. And the Hits Keep Coming
    7. Whoa, There
    8. The Lady or the Tiger
    9. The Clock Is Ticking
    10. Graceful Change
    11. Hot Off the Presses
    12. Constant Motion
  15. Repeal Brooks's Law
    1. Brooks's Law
    2. The Werewolf Lives
    3. The Silver Bullet
    4. The Testing Phase
    5. Next-generation Testing
    6. Deciding What to Build
    7. It's a Different World
    8. Moore's Law
    9. The Cost of Software
    10. Software Economics 101
    11. The Recount
    12. Bid Now
  16. New Kids on the Block
    1. Why Does It Work?
    2. WebEx: Web Communication Services
    3. RightNow: Customer Service and Support
    4. salesforce.com: CRM for the Masses
    5. NetSuite: Integrated Business Management Software
    6. Open Harbor: Integrated Global Trade Management
    7. Conclusion
  17. The Debate Is the Rate
    1. Traditional Software Business Model
    2. Evolution, Not Revolution
    3. No Baggage
    4. But I'm an Investor
    5. Where Is This Going?
  18. Index

Product information

  • Title: End of Software, The: Finding Security, Flexibility, and Profit in the On Demand Future
  • Author(s): Timothy Chou
  • Release date: September 2004
  • Publisher(s): Sams
  • ISBN: 0672326981