Week 7

This week’s lecture was about software as a service, RSS and mashupss. This lecture was the most detailed and hard lecture in the entire module possibly because it was discussing topics which I have never heard of before that is why I was so interested in this weeks lecture.



In the lecture I did not understand the definition of software as a service, after doing research I found out that basically Software as a Service is a software distribution model in which applications are hosted by a vendor or service provider and made available to customers over a network, usually the Internet. It is becoming an increasingly common delivery model as underlying technologies that support Web services and service-oriented architecture mature and new developmental approaches, such as Ajax, become popular. In the meantime, broadband service has become increasingly available to support user access from more areas around the world. The benefits of software as a service model which I have found are:


• High Adoption

Software as a Service applications are available from any computer or any device—any time, anywhere. Because most people are familiar with using the Internet to find what they need, they have high adoption rates, with a lower learning bend.


AND


• Lower Initial Costs

Software as Service applications are subscription based. No license fees mean lower initial costs. Having the Software as a Service provider manage the IT infrastructure therefore means lower IT costs for hardware, software, and the people needed to manage it all.


The popularity of Software as a service is slowly increasing because it simplifies deployment and reduces customer acquisition costs. A recent survey of a thousand IT professionals by Forrester Research found that they are turning to hosted Software as a Service products as a way to relieve management of non-mission-critical applications such as HR and CRM. Also, the subscription based Software as a Service pricing model can keep IT budget costs consistent or lower than packaged or homegrown software.


Despite Software as a Service having many advantages I still think that the problems cannot be overlooked especially the security problem because it is a major issue which can affect many organisations especially larger organisations because they are more likely to have more confidential information therefore would not have the trust in another organisation coming in and accessing their software.

I have never used RSS even though I have an RSS app on my phone because I did not know what it was used for. After the lecture I think it is a good idea to use RSS software to get a live news feed at your fingertips. The main advantage I think RSS has is that it is spam free. Unlike email subscriptions, RSS does not make use of your email address to send updates therefore privacy is kept safe from spam mails. However there is a disadvantage which requires attention such as RSS feeds create higher traffic and demands on the server.

Mashupss is a topic which I completely have no idea about. After some research I realised that mashupss are a web tool which is used to collaborate information from all diferent sources. I found it very difficult to find further resarch on this topic therefore I wish we had discussed it more in class. However i will keep looking out for more information on this topic in order to obtain a better understanding as this was the only topic in the lecture that I did not really understand.

In the lab this week we continued with our team presenation. One om my team members were absent therefore we had no idea how much he had worked on the presentation. I was the only one in the team who had finshed my research therefore I helped the others to complete theirs.