Software Deployment / Distribution
Define: Software deployment and distribution is the process of
getting software to the point where it is available for active use within a
user’s computer.
Traditionally, software companies have followed the retail
model. Software was copied onto a variety of magnetic media – floppy
disks, CDs or DVDs – and made available for purchase through the shops.
Customers would buy the software and install it on their machines. Updates
to the software would be made infrequently and might be mailed to
customers who had registered their purchase.
The advent of the internet brought great change to this traditional
pattern. The familiar distribution methods remained in use but also
adapted to the new possibilities, while a number of bold innovations in
the software distribution process were also attempted, with varying
degrees of success.
The most basic change offered by widespread internet access was the
possibility of making software updates available more frequently. Indeed,
because being connected to the internet exposed a computer user to a far
greater number of potential hazards than did using an isolated machine or
one hooked up to an internal company network, frequent updates became
something of an imperative as bugs in software which gave rise to security
vulnerabilities were discovered and had to be fixed. At first, customers
would have to download software patches then install them manually. Soon,
though, companies began to program the software itself to check for
updates online, either automatically or in response to a user command.
The practice of traditionally-purchased software making connections over
the internet to servers run by the companies which created it has ushered
in new ways of combating the problem of software piracy. Although
traditional anti-piracy measures such as registration keys and the like
had been bypassed fairly easily when the software was running on isolated
machines, a central server is capable of detecting the use of duplicate
keys and can deny access to online facilities to any software it deems to
be pirated. Microsoft, for example, has striven to make regular online
updates a core part of the normal functioning of its Windows operating
system, yet updates are denied to users whose copy of Windows is
considered not genuine. Makers of game software have been able to shore up
profits by incorporating online features into their games, features which
users of pirated copies of their games will be unable to take advantage
of. Indeed, Valve Software, makers of the phenomenally successful game
Half Life, decided to use their hot property to push the adoption of the
online anti-piracy system known as Steam. Steam is a game portal which
requires users to create an account before being able to play any games
which are bound to it, including games which the user may have purchased
in a shop. Although it proved controversial and unpopular with many users,
it does seem to have established itself as an enduring part of the
software distribution landscape, and now features many games created by
companies other than its creators, Valve.
From distributing software updates online it is, of course, a small step,
you would think, to distributing the software itself online. In fact,
although online software purchases are now made routinely, the traditional
disk-in-the-shop model has proved surprisingly resilient. The bulk of
online software sales are accounted for by low-end shareware applications
created by small companies with little to no marketing clout.
When Blizzard entertainment, makes of the popular online role-playing game
World of Warcraft, introduced an expansion pack for the game, it was
initially made available only through conventional retail outlets. The
company had been distributing patches for the game, often hefty in size,
for some time before. Yet even with that background in online
distribution, it was reluctant to embrace an exclusive online roll-out for
an important new product. Blizzard executives realised that they probably
could not cope with the high levels of demand which had been anticipated.
After the initial surge of purchases in the shops, however, online
purchase options were made available some weeks later.
Many other significant innovations in software distribution have or are
being attempted following the rise to mass popularity of the internet. For
example, some believed that rather than having to be installed permanently
on a user’s computer, applications could just be downloaded on the fly
whenever needed. Java applets, which ran within a browser after being
downloaded from a web page, were probably the most popular implementation
of this idea. They failed to gain any traction as serious alternatives to
installed applications, however. Browser compatibility problems, security
restrictions imposed on downloaded code, and the limitations of the Java
language itself all combined to undermine acceptance of this new mode of
distribution.
In recent years, the Software-as-a-Service (SAAS) concept has garnered
some attention. Under SAAS, customers do not purchase software at all –
they rent it, paying for it on a subscription basis for as long as they
need to use it. The software itself is never installed on the user’s
machine. Instead, it runs on remote servers and is accessed by the users
via the web.
SAAS vendors tout the advantages of this new mode of distribution.
Customers can forget all about installation hassles, they say. No more
need to worry about updating dozens of corporate desktops with the latest
bug fixes either. All of that now takes places behind the scenes on the
servers of the service provider. To the users, the experience is seamless.
Moreover, when an application is accessed as a web page, all of the
heavy-duty processing is done server-side. No need to invest in the latest
powerful PCs therefore, and no need to worry about how your laptop will
cope when you’re on the road.
Some of the software being marketed as a service has achieved broad
penetration within specific niche areas. Salesforce.com, for example,
designed, as the name suggests, for sales personnel, has proved remarkably
popular within its field. It remains to be seen, however, whether
companies or consumers can be persuaded to give up the idea of ownership
so easily.
|
