| SOFTonNET has identified two significant and fast-growing markets for its technology: corporations needing a solution to the daunting task of installing, upgrading and maintaining software supplied to individual desktops; and software publishers seeking innovative learn-try-buy solutions for providing software over the Internet. |
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| The Gartner Group estimates that the average cost per year of a seat at the network is $10,000, two thirds of which is the cost of administering and maintaining software. Corporations continually struggle to find ways to reduce the high cost of deploying and administering software. Currently, there are three methods of tackling this problem: |
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Software installed on individual destops:
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Those companies without any network administration spend vast sums physically installing the software on an individual basis. The pitfalls of this approach include:
- Exorbitant costs of IT personnel to physically install and upgrade computers
- Version control issues as software is upgraded at different times
- Over-purchase of software that is used occasionally or not simultaneously
- Inability to track software usage to accurately gauge demand. |
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Dumb-terminal emulation
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Current solutions in the marketplace (Citrix) allow central administration of applications, with commands originating at the dumb terminal and the application running on the server or mainframe.
Disadvantages of this approach include:
- High bandwidth requirements for the continual exchange between the server and the terminal
- Slow performance
- Inability of these solutions to scale to a large number of concurrent users
- Lengthy, complex installations
- High cost of the software solutions
- Inability to handle interactive, multimedia applications
- Demand for a large number of servers and a load-balancing system |
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Remote installation
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Additional solutions on the market (Tivoli, SMS), provide remote installation of software applications from a serer/mainframe to the individual desktop.
Disadvantages of this solution include:
- Cumbersome and lengthy download and re-boot procedure
- High bandwidth requrements
- Version control issues as software is downloaded at different times
- Hard-drive overload from maintaining bulky, but seldom used, applications. |
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| The CEO of Microsoft, Steve Ballmer, has predicted that "in three to four years, with broadband connection everywhere, the notion of software as a packaged product will disappear." Software companies, in their continual need to expand their access to customers, are increasingly utilizing the Internet for demonstrations, trials and ultimate delivery of their software. The only method being used at this time is downloading. The disadvantages of this approach include: |
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- Potential users dislike downloading and installing a software program for trial
- 60% of software downloads end in failure, according to market research
- Publishers are unable to offer options to lease, subscribe, or pay per use. |
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SOFTonNET ▶ Market
