SaaS - The Evolution is now

obscufication and false flags... Great questions a...

2008-09-03T12:06:00.000-07:00

obscufication and false flags...

Great questions around security on the internet. What is really secure today on the internet or really your own desktop, between email threats to bot attacks against vulnerably PC's, is anything really safe?

"False flag" operation - definition from Wikipedia: "False flag operations are covert operations conducted by governments, corporations, or other organizations, which are designed to appear as if they are being carried out by other entities. The name is derived from the military concept of flying false colors; that is, flying the flag of a country other than one's own. False flag operations are not limited to war and counter-insurgency operations, and have been used in peace-time; for example, during Italy's strategy of tension."

Having done extensive work for the Department of Defense around internet security, there will always be the possibility of creating false flags. A recent email spam under the banner of CNN is a great example of a False Flag with a subject of "How McCain beats Obama in the primaries" click on this link to see the full story... and the link is a Trojan.

As SaaS companies evolve solutions they will need to evolve their security model. To your question, will SaaS address this issue, I think Salesforce.com is a great example of how they have evolved their security to meet the current issues of false-flagging and other security threats.

So is traditional client server computing really more secure than SaaS? To your point, misconfiguration of a server or a firewall can be a devastating mistake and we still face the challenge of the oldest application that everyone uses today, email and it is probably the most unsecure application in the universe.

SaaS apps like SFDC require IP authentication, token security validation and email validation as entry points into their system. Traditional applications really have no security, login authentication with limited rules for authentication, the IT organization is left with building a secure environment around the traditional application. Another hidden cost in the client server architecture, securing the application.

Interesting question, at the end of the day it comes down to the user, their understanding of what they are doing on or off the internet and the evolution of security to protect private data and systems.

Lonnie, wonderful elucidation...but what about sec...

2008-08-22T15:16:00.000-07:00

Lonnie, wonderful elucidation...but what about security?

SaaS opens up even more avenues of obscufication and potential false-flags...e.g., the recent article that described how a user unknowingly d/'ld the mail for 7 other colleagues on the network.

The tech. is not as mature as more traditional offerings...does this mean we should hold it to the same level of trust?

It's all too easy to mistake a misconfiguration or other issue as an attack -- based on your experiences, how will SaaS address these issues?

Lonnie,Good stuff. Like all larger organizations,...

2008-08-12T12:06:00.000-07:00

Lonnie,
Good stuff. Like all larger organizations, Higher Education isn’t any different than companies who had to either build their own systems or highly customize what was available over the last 25+ years. The challenge we continue to see is that the underlying Integration while “easier” to discover and connect to has evolved with WEB 2.0, the challenge is that it still falls on the end user shoulders to get the data from existing systems to new systems. Regardless of SaaS or On-premise apps, as long as there are multiple sources of data the true one view of the customer will always be Holy Grail of all CRM’s. As you point out, some folks are further along on the quest.

Lonnie – Great blog. Right topic. Right time. I ha...

2008-07-28T09:01:00.000-07:00

Lonnie – Great blog. Right topic. Right time. I have a two observations.
1. Caveat Metaphor
I think you did a wonderful job of providing easy to understand definitions of some of the big trends in IT, and was interested the they are typically called out via literal descriptors like “platform as a service”. Cloud computing is a conceptual metaphor, as is “grid computing”. I found it fascinating that you had them grouped together since to me Cloud computing is the conceptual metaphor for delivering computing services in the era of Web 2.0 that Grid Computing was to Web 1.0.
Conceptual metaphors act as powerful literary tools, and in the case of high technology serve as a way to capture some very complex ideas and present them in a simple and efficient way. But because of this, they can also be dangerous. A conceptual metaphor like “cloud” and “grid” act as a force multiplier in the technology hype cycle.
Gartner is typically credited with pulling together the model of hype or awareness of a new IT trend. The model starts the awareness with a technology trigger, which rises rapidly to the peak of inflated expectations, then crashes into the trough of disillusionment, and then eventually rises again more slowly through the slope of enlightenment to the plateau of productivity. The conceptual metaphor increases the speed and magnitude of the peak of inflated expectations, and similarly the trough of disillusionment.
I’ll point out that Grid was the HOT trend a decade ago. Everyone wanted to do GRID computing, and end up with “on-demand” resources that would flow from an Ethernet cable like electricity on the grid…… Today grid computing as a term has been pretty well niched in high performance computing, while the core technologies are being adapted and pulled under the new umbrella of “cloud computing”.
The good thing is that “cloud computing” is a much better metaphor than “grid computing”. I’m not sure if the technology is much different but clouds are much better than grids to describe access to computing, storage and communication resources that aren’t locally owned and managed but are available when you want/need them. I had a conversation about this with Dr Jaron Lanier the Interdisciplinary Scholar in Residence at CET US Berkeley. Jaron pointed out that among other things clouds were feminine, unconstrained and beautiful while grids were masculine, rigid and industrial. My personal observation is that computing doesn’t work like electricity and the grid metaphor ended up confusing things, while the term cloud is more abstract and should avoid the false connotation that arose with the term grid.
What’s important here is to be aware of the hype cycle and not get distracted from the ultimate goal which is the plateau of productivity. Your recommendation of “blueprinting” or mapping current business process and IT and developing a roadmap to adopt and adapt some of the new methods in IT is the right way to stay factual and avoid the hype.

2. It’s all About the Benjamin’s
Your blog mentioned cost, cost , and cost and called out the key vectors of OpEx that confront most IT organization. I think this is the tip of a much bigger economic iceberg that really differentiates the new Web 2.0/SaaS/Cloud technologies from their predecessors.
I the past era of client/server or Web 1.0 the application was developed by the vendor on a specific hardware and operating system platform and then re-hosted on other platforms that customers might have in their own IT shop. The vendor would then have to ensure that the application worked well, was ported correctly to each HW/OS platform and then train the IT practitioners how to best use their widget. This was/is an enormous cost to the vendor and served/serves as a barrier to entry.
It adds ZERO value to the customer.
All of the cost to port, validate, tune and train simply allows the application to work. It’s the equivalent of the IT cost to Keep the Lights On (KTLO).
The problem is that when all of this cost is applied to KTLO or simply delivering a product that works there is less resource available to add features, make the user interface truly usable, customize the interfaces to fit the workflow of the specific business. In fact in the packaged SW model most of the consulting money went to re-tool the workflow to fit the assumptions made by the packages SW vendor.
My assertion is that over time the OpEx advantages which are significant and justify the initial investment will be over whelmed by CapEx benefits . The new technologies allow a better application of resources and allow IT to achieve the holy grail which is to be a cog that drives differentiated business value.

Nice post.It's still a challege to convince died-i...

2008-07-17T15:14:00.000-07:00

Nice post.

It's still a challege to convince died-in-the-wool IT managers that SaaS is here. A lot of guys who came up through the printers n' copiers route look at SaaS as taking bread off their plate. In particular I have met big challenges from senior IT execs when trying to push SFDC and Amazon services.

Perfect example - my company is choosing to build it's own geocode database - and inherit the endless maintenance and data updates - even though both GOOG and MSFT are giving it away as a web service with their mapping products we license.

I think in the tech businesses and places where you have really smart, up-to-date people, they are already embracing SaaS, but we have a long way to go in the more traditional businesses.

Oh P.S it's Matt Lee from the BKB days...

Good to see you on the blogosphere, and looking fo...

2008-06-12T11:25:00.000-07:00

Good to see you on the blogosphere, and looking forward to more info on PaaS.

Lonnie: Congratulations on your new blog! It will ...

2008-06-12T04:06:00.000-07:00

Lonnie: Congratulations on your new blog! It will be great to read your perspectives on the market from your new vantagepoint.

Hey Lonnie - you are one of those early thought le...

2008-06-11T10:35:00.000-07:00

Hey Lonnie - you are one of those early thought leaders and advocates of the space - great too see you write this blog.