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Going Places. Destination Yet Unknown.
Software's Half-Life
I was speaking with a high ranking individual at one of the platform vendors yesterday and the conversation diverged into a series of rather targeted questions aimed (I believe), at discerning whether or not Ping appreciated the dynamics (and possible tension) between any ISV in relation to their platform vendor.
Without being quite this direct, the questioning essentially got to, "...are you smart enough to recognize you need to continually move up the stack in order to stay out from under our steam roller."
Any software entrepreneur who's been around for a while quickly realizes that you can never rest. We're all on a rat wheel, and you've got to keep your legs moving. The value of software has a half-life. The second you ship a feature, the commercial value begins to decay. In 18 months, it might be worth half and in 36 months, it's completely commoditized.
The key to survival then is to understand where you are in the stack and the speed with which the pieces underneath you will undermine your value. One of the undocumented benefits / features of Software delivered as a Service is that it bi-passes some of the erosion effects I'm describing here. That is, until someone figures out how to deliver not only free and open software, but free and open services. Oh yea, that's Google.
Created 3/26/2008; 10:58:42 AM. Updated Wednesday, May 14, 2008 at 6:08:34 AM
(C) 2008 Andre Durand - Federated Identity Management
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