Software plus services

Software plus services combines hosted services with locally running software in a variation on cloud computing. Such composite applications combine traditional software with remote services to provide a consistent user experience across devices and form factors.

There are various reasons for this to be a favoured approach when compared to moving everything to cloud or software as a service models.

• Better graphical user interface—Functional limitations prevent current web browser technology from providing a standard application interface. Using local software as the internet client provides the best of both worlds.
• Offline capability—S+S allows a user to work offline, and then automatically synchronize with the cloud, perhaps for access by others or as a backup. This provides a workable and sustainable model for mobile and remote knowledge workers, such as sales representatives and home workers, who may have disconnected or occasionally connected software, and who don’t or can’t always remain connected.
• Privacy—If an organisation publishes all data to the cloud then they relinquish primary control over that data, and increase the risk of the information being compromised. With S+S a vendor can provide an option to move non-private information to the cloud and keep more sensitive data locally, without losing any capability.
• Powerful devices—In line with Moore's Law, as local computing devices continue to get more powerful, greater efficiency can be achieved by offloading server processing.
• Architecture options—Software developers can now architect software solutions by composing local and remote services.
• IT flexibility—Vendors can deploy software in various configurations—on premise, hosted or mixed.