CTO Blog

Here's an idea that I have picked up on the internet some time ago (I can't remember where ). The idea is to be able to label a website as carbon neutral. Such a label would require some sort of certificate that is valid for a certain period. It shouldn't be too difficult to calculate the amount of energy - and thus the amount of carbon emission the website contributes to - required by this website to keep it live in that period. The above mentioned label would require a registered and public certificate. The cost of that certificate should be used for planting some trees or something to counterbalance the carbon emission caused by the website.

One reason that the PC has survived over the years is because of issues with ownership of data. I still see this as a sort of stumbling block for SaaS.
The green IT issue might make sense (in the future) for migrating to centralized systems but it still would require client machines to access the centralized system nevertheless.

I agree to Barada's point. There are lots of possibilities to resolve the Client Machines' Issue in the near future. Still, security would be an area of concern, not to mention the cost of replacing technology in place of current Client Machine Usage.

Carl, I would appreciate your comments.

Hi guys - really good points.

On the security issue I'd offer that the debate around moat security versus de-perimeterised security has been had and the consensus is the latter is by far the more secure general purpose model. The technicalities aside, it’s often highly important for organisations to be able to share information with not only staff in multiple locations (both home and office), but of course customers and partners too – and the Web of course provides the ubiquitous infrastructure to make this happen. So, which is more secure - an on-premise solution which has been evolved to allow external access or a Web SaaS application which has Web security models built-in from the start? Or data which is stored on thousands of individual PCs versus data which is stored in one location? The answer of course is both models can be secure or insecure within the specific end-end environment – but my point is, in my view, current security models are not necessarily more secure than Web security models (in fact I believe Web models are inherently more secure). Not only that, document centric security, as opposed to application centric security, fits neatly with the Web model and is used as a basis for securing information in highly secure situations.

On the cost point, for many organisations the attraction for thinner devices is the total cost of ownership – many organisations are seriously considering the model in the context of PC (and related services such as network) costs. Other major organisations are also replacing private networks with Internet – so I believe there are compelling arguments from a TCO perspective.

As ever, no one size ever fits all - but the economics of SaaS today, and SaaS plus Green tomorrow, I believe strongly add to the tipping point for broader adoption of thinner devices – but of course _not_ the death of the PC! - and I’d offer strongly as something to be explicitly considered in today’s strategy, planning and execution activity.

Thanks alot for your valuable comments. It was really interesting.

How successful is SaaS Implementation for a complete ERP Systems?
Pros and Cons would be appreciated!!!

Thanks and a pleasure - it's a fascinating topic.

Re. SaaS - pros and cons - it is an interesting question - but perhaps a focus on some fundamental truths of business IT is the place to start to help shine a light on SaaS. Will post an entry!

cheers,
Carl