Did you feel the world shift?
When I saw the information on Google App Engine, it occurred to me that we are witnesses to a paradigm shift. It isn’t just about Web Services and Services Oriented approaches to them. It isn’t just about Facebook and social apps. Its a different way to look at how we build and provide services in general. Its a different way to look at data and integrating it with services. Its a true shift, and we’re just at the beginning.
Since we are just at the beginning of this, its hard to see what it will really look like. We have the start of it in Google App Engine (and some of Google’s other services), and Amazons Web Services, and in IBM’s AlphaWorks QEDWiki. But it isn’t just about hosted services, or about mashups, or about APIs. In fact, I’m not even sure exactly what it is, or how to think about it. But get ready. Its going to be different from what we’ve ever done before.
If you are in the business of building business applications and your software does not run on the web, you are already two steps behind. If you are in the business of building or hosting web sites, applications, or services, get ready to change your conceptual and business models. It might not be fully realized this year, but it is coming.
David's Tech Blog 