It was not long ago that less than half of the UK had access to broadband running at speeds no faster than 512k. Today the coverage is almost ubiquitous and download speeds have increased 16-fold.
In 1996 Larry Ellison, chief executive of Oracle, predicted that when the local loop became faster and more reliable we would see the return of centralized processing and the fall of Microsoft. I suspect the demise of the giant software vendor was mere wishful thinking on Ellison’s part. However the return to centralized processing is happening even if it is now known as 'hosted application', 'managed services' or 'virtualisation'.
At a certain point the economics are just too compelling. Why run your own servers, continuously upgrade everyone’s operating system and pay for software you never use?
We haven’t reached Ellison’s tipping point yet, but we are not far away and he was right on one thing – the key is the connectivity. Broadband will evolve to become the conduit through which all applications flow in the future.
Microsoft now sells software by the seat and by the month. It is putting millions into Terminal Server. There has been a explosion in demand for private broadband IP VPNs driven by remote working, electronic point of sale, chip-and-PIN, IP surveillance, voice over IP and hosted telephony. The value of these deals start at £500,000 a year.
Source: CRN Focus April 2007
Andrew Dickinson
Sales and Marketing Director
