The Internet as an Operating System

Although the Internet is not actually an operating system, it can be used as a platform to run software on. Hosting applications on the Internet adds a number of fantastic benefits:

You only have to write a program once and it runs on almost any operating system. If you target a specific OS for a program, only users on that operating system can use the software. To allow other systems to use the program, more time and money must be spent.

You only install it once on the server and any number of users gain access to it. With conventional software, you install a copy on every computer. In a large company, that could be thousands or tens of thousands of machines! When new features and bug fixes are available, you only update it once on the server.

Centralized backup becomes much simpler since you only have to back up the data on one machine (the server) instead of all the machines the program is installed on.

Obviously deploying software on the Internet can save developers and companies huge amounts of time and money on installation and management. Why then, do people (and companies for that matter) still buy software, take up their time and disk space installing it, and then worry about backing it up and fixing it when things to wrong?

For most software, the answer is: They shouldn't be. The advantages of a centralized software system that is deployed once and maintained in one place far out way the disadvantages. The reason so much software is still installed locally stems from the fact that the majority of software has been written, and developed before connections to the Internet became both fast and inexpensive. Software couldn't run fast enough over the internet. Although this is still a concern for certain types of applications, by and large most software can easily be built for Internet deployment. Over the last few years, more and more software is taking advantage of the Internet. Internet based word processors, spreadsheets, email systems, and even massive enterprise packages in fields like distribution management, education, healthcare, financial, and government have been created.

Due to significant advantages and cost savings of deploying software via the Internet, we've specialized in building web based applications using the latest tools like Ruby on Rails, Java Server Pages (JSP), Java Server Faces (JSF), PHP, XML, and XHTML. To find out more about how we can make Internet deployed software work for you, contact us. Your initial consultation with a senior developer is always free.