UNRAU INNOVATIVE CORPORATION

The tools are rapidly advancing, becoming more reliable, easier to deploy and packed with more benefit to end users.  Simple development means a lower financial risk and soon we may add this to almost non existent software costs since large expensive software packages are slowly being phased out.  Good riddance everyone tell me since the next version won’t be too far away anyways. 

Developers from everywhere are sipping coffee through perma-smiles and probably spending their lunch breaks wondering if p=np rather than how to manage a difficult bug and client’s expectation to meet a milestone.   Ok, I admit, that’s pretty unlikely, but you can’t deny the community is buzzing – why not, these tools make us look like wizards  (shhh don’t tell anyone a child could do it).  

Well, as I was reading one of these happy go lucky blags about some new API feature of some new fancy open source compendium....


... an advertisement for the magical "cloud" scrolled past and pressed me to consider using it for ‘free’ on my r my next project.  Is it just me or does anyone else get a shiver up their spine when they’re offered ‘free’ usage of a virtualized service in the “cloud” and (apparently for our benefit) we can resell it to our customers?  This is only a ‘virtual’ gift as it’s really just a worm on a hook.  I don’t know many clients who would be too happy if they were roped into a $50 per user licensing (like for you know who’s apps) - when we could have designed their system with open source groupware and perhaps thrown in what we used to call a cluster or distributed failover with hardware that’s only too cheap now. 

Nothing in this world is free, so think carefully before you integrate your next project into live documents or commit the code to a data access layer that is not useable without paying a monthly fee.  Sometimes it will be appropriate, perhaps a project with low financial returns or short half-life, but in other situations, the project will have unreasonable expenses and will find it too costly to change from, the fancypants database or other component down the road. 

Due to the low profitability of hardware and high availability of advanced tools and materials, expect to see more of what we take for granted to be unavailable off the shelf.  How long before you can’t buy a word processor to keep or even your own Operating System?  If you’re a Windows user, you’re already only ‘renting’ the operating system as it explains in the fine print. 

One day we’ll pay to click each button and no computer will be a “Personal” Computer – every terminal will have everything for anyone who logs in.   I know you’re thinking there’s no way I could turn my hot rod box turned into a dumb terminal - hardware will be so cheap, I’d never virtualize.  I feel the same way but I’m not sure we will have a choice!  Water falls from the sky but it’s more expensive in a bottle than gasoline.