As I ponder the impact of Google's Chrome OS and HTML 5, it makes me take another look at enterprise software. Software on the web continues to evolve and impress. Have you even seen the Outlook Web Access client that comes with Exchange 2007? At this rate, how much longer will it make sense to install and maintain Outlook?
Enterprise software is *slowly* moving to the web. The integration of SharePoint and Office 2010 Web Apps excites me. If you have not heard about it, check out Web Worker Daily's write up.
Microsoft is not the only moving their software to the web. In the accounting world, I continue to watch my job become less and less relevant. Intuit has ported QuickBooks to the web. CCH, a juggernaut in the accounting vertical, has released their entire ProSystem fx Suite online.
CAN DESKTOP AND APPLICATION VIRTUALIZATION MATURE FAST ENOUGH?
All client virtualization solutions seek to similarly solve the immediate difficulties faced by IT departments that the distributed nature of Microsoft Windows creates. Distributed computing has failed, to put it bluntly. The reason there are so many vendors (Microsoft, VMware, Citrix, among others...) all trying to solve essentially the same problem; that Windows was never designed for this purpose. Every solution struggles to work for more than just task workers. Still yet, the solutions available clearly have much room to grow before they are usable in most enterprises.
There will always be software that benefits from application virtualization and streaming, though overtime that will be more and more of a niche use. My fear is that by the time client virtualization "grows up", it will be too late. But then again, maybe that is what Microsoft wants. Slow and steady will not win this race.
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