What is Software + Services (S+S)? Is it Service Oriented Architecture (SOA)? Or is it Software as a Service (SaaS)? Web 2.0? Or some fluffy terminology?

If you look at these phenomena – they all have a common denominator of services

• SaaS – 1:many delivery of software over the internet. About delivery and operations. Primarily coming out of the business applications space.
• SOA – service composition or assembly, become heavily enterprise focused of late. Rise of service orientation is more important as it is the new development paradigm. MS invested enormously here with .NET and web services.
• Web 2.0 – service experience and economics. Renaissance of Web development after the collapse of the bubble, harnessing collective intelligence, richer browser experiences via AJAX but not limited to the browser. More debate over what this one means but people seem to know it when they see it.

All address different aspects of services and likely to be increasingly intertwined. Been marching towards services for a couple years now – that trajectory continues and accelerates.

There are a couple things that add up to S+S:

• Starts with the fact that services are software.
• We take an expansive view – can take technology much further and adoption is still limited to early adopters today.
• We need integration across these different phenomena.
• Could really use a platform that brings all these phenomena to bear, makes it much easier and accessible to much broader set of developers.

We call this Software + Services (S+S) – our strategy for this era. In conclusion,

SaaS = Service Delivery

SOA = Service Composition

Web 2.0 = Service experience and economics

Services are software

+ Take an expansive view

+ Need integration

+ Want Platform