Software as a service trend
According to the latest industry research, by 2015, approximately 75% of new software will be provided online as a service. With the Internet, the days of software being delivered as products on CD are gone. More businesses will have their applications, including accounting, sales, productivity, logistics, manufacturing, and tools delivered directly to users via the Web. Over the past few years, Software as a Service (SaaS) or the new name Cloud Computing is becoming a popular choice among global businesses. As Web technologies matured with many applications become standardized, and the pressure for reducing costs and focus more on “Core functions” has steadily increased this new approach. With Cloud Computing, companies do not have to invest in hardware, servers, database and software licenses anymore. All they have to do is to focus on the IT infrastructure and the rest will be done by cloud computing service providers.
Cloud Computing is much easier to deploy than traditional software. Since the company is renting instead of buying, it typically requires just a few weeks of preparation such as configuring the software and training users. There is no problem with updating software because every user gets upgraded at the same time which make it cheaper and faster. With nearly all major software companies, including Oracle, Microsoft, Google, HP, IBM etc. are now rushing into Cloud Computing, it opens so many career opportunities for software developers who know how to create and maintain programs designed for Internet distribution. According to the industry news, there will be more positions for people with software degrees to work as designers, developers, testers, network operations, database administrators, security specialists, service managers, and information system managers etc. According to the industry prediction, between 2011 to 2016 there will be over five million new positions created in the software services area. However, since some positions are relatively new, there will be a shortage of people with these skills and it will drive up their salary.
With Cloud Computing, all applications will need to adhere to a rapid update schedule, which require software people to work quickly because there maybe releases every week or every month. Therefore, agile approach will mostly be used instead of traditional. The demand for people with agile knowledge such as Scrum, Extreme programming, Crystal etc. will be in high demand. Traditional software such as Waterfall approach is too slow as it releases every nine months or every year will not work well in a fast-paced market like as Cloud Computing. Since many companies will move to Cloud Computing, service manager positions will be in high demand since not many schools are offering this type of trainings. The Software and Information Industry Association (SIIA) expects that cloud computing growth to continue for many years as it will expand all over the world but its success will depend on the skills of service providers and users to do it effectively and efficiently. While today Cloud Computing so far relies more on a group of senior developers and service managers but it growth will likely open for more entry-level positions.
Although the new technology is not much different from traditional software development, many concepts are the same but it will take time for schools to make the necessary adjustments. Students must be taught more on Agile approach as most development will happen quickly. Most of all, they must change their mind set from building a product into providing a service. They must learn more about the business of managing services such as configuration management, demand management, help desk management, performance management etc. They must understand that with Cloud Computing, customer satisfaction will be the most important factor as they must also learn the “Soft skills” and the business aspect of a service providers. Of course, students will need time to learn how to develop software for this fast pace environment that is now in high demand, and the demand is going to increase more.
The outlook for Cloud Computing is very bright but it continuing to change fast with more opportunities. As it expand globally, as more companies are using it the demand will be very high for skilled software people. Students who planning to build a career in this type of works must prepare to get into this field right now as more people are jumping into this high demand area. Until something even better comes along, Cloud Computing can be expected to continue to move toward industry domination. Of course, technology is changing and new things will always come along but for today, if you look at the software industry and what is hot then Cloud Computing is a very powerful technology and a very powerful business trend.
Sources
- Blogs of Prof. John Vu, Carnegie Mellon University
