July 17, 2000

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Solution Series:
In Favor Of Web Apps

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By Justin Fielding

The combination of existing apps available via the ASP model and the crush of companies building Web apps from the ground up is making for a fast-growing new applications market.

Leading high-tech analysts see a robust ASP industry in the near future. International Data Corp. estimates that worldwide spending on ASP services was $300 million in 1999 and will grow to $7.8 billion by 2004--a compound annual growth rate of 92%.

E-mail may be the most popular Web app, but there are many other types available, and new ones are coming online every day. For example, Apps.com's directory listings include more than 7,000 apps from around the Web, representing more than 200 categories.

Even the most fully functional desktop apps are joining the Web fray. Notably, Microsoft and Sun Microsystems have revealed Web-accessible versions of their desktop suites. Microsoft plans to expand availability of Office Online, by which ASPs offer access to Office via Windows Terminal Services. The company's recent announcement of its Microsoft.Net Web-app platform suggests that it will ship a true Web-app implementation of Office within the next two years, under the name Office.Net. Sun provides its StarOffice suite as a downloadable executable, but it has announced plans to move the suite to a true browser-based model under the name StarPortal. Other Web-app suites include MyFreeDesk, Nuomedia, and ThinkFreeOffice.

Core desktop-productivity tools, such as word processors and spreadsheets, usually are complex fat-client applications for which responsiveness, rich functionality, and disconnected access are critical. As a result, they aren't optimal candidates for access via the Internet except by casual users. But the extensive investment in making such tools available over the Web demonstrates how seriously the software industry takes users' interest in the Web-application model. Given that several typical office-suite components are already quite popular in online versions--including calendaring and scheduling, presentation graphics, and E-mail--broad acceptance of other core productivity Web applications may soon follow.

Enterprise-focused ASPs such as Corio Inc. and USinternetworking Inc. provide back-end suites for key business functions, including human resources, customer-relationship management, and procurement. Many of these enterprise ASP offerings leverage technologies from partners, including Microsoft, Oracle, PeopleSoft, SAP, and Siebel Systems, to provide full-function business applications, often over virtual private networks accessed through browsers.

On the small-scale side of the application spectrum is one of the most prolific Web-application categories: calculators of every conceivable type. Need to know how much silage you have in a bunker silo? The Alberta, Canada, agriculture department hosts a calculator that would probably do the trick. Need to compute the amount of alcohol in a beverage you're brewing? Deadyeast.com may be just the ticket. Unsure of the proper string tension and diameter for a musical instrument? A calculator at the University of Helsinki can set you straight.

Should you need to calculate more mundane business data, such as mortgage rates or depreciation, odds are the tool you need is a mouse-click away. And when you're ready for a break from silage and mortgages, you'll find an astounding array of free games, puzzles, quizzes, hobby apps, and learning tools.

Though games and hobby apps may not do much for business productivity, IT managers can take solace in the fact that employees who use pure Web apps--no downloads--aren't destabilizing their machines' configurations.

Web applications offer the following conveniences:

• You can get to the apps and your data from any computer that can browse the Web simply by logging on to the site where the app resides.
• Most run without requiring you to install custom client-side components.
• Because the applications are hosted off-site, you don't need to configure and maintain server-side components. As long as the service is useful and reliable, it's of no consequence what back-end systems host the application.
• In many cases, the cost of running Web apps is far lower than hosting them internally. In addition to the actual software acquisition or rental costs, consider the savings opportunities for IT staff, both server-side and help desk: servers and disk drives, among other things.
• Because they're built with the Web as a core technology rather than as an afterthought, Web apps can offer distinct collaborative capabilities.

But there are trade-offs as well. Web apps can pose the following disadvantages:

• They often aren't as full-featured as their installable equivalents, but this isn't necessarily the case with applications when most of the complexity is on the server side.
• You generally need an active Web connection to use them. Although some support an offline mode, most Web apps aren't practical to use on an airplane, for instance.
• Security, reliability, and scalability present concerns. Using third-party hosted applications, with the Internet as an access medium, can raise risks that wouldn't occur with an application hosted in a closed internal network. You'll want to make sure you're working with reputable ASPs that have architecture, procedures, and business viability sturdy enough for your needs. For some business-critical applications, you may find that the risks outweigh the rewards, at least at the current level of maturity for Web technology. Service-level agreements can give you leverage with your vendors, but you may sleep better knowing that certain applications are being managed under the watchful eye of your IT staff.
• Data integration is limited. If you use Web apps from several vendors, you may find it difficult or impossible to integrate data across those applications.
• Customization is also limited. While some ASPs provide extensive custom development services, you'll generally find it harder to adapt externally managed apps than those installed on internal clients and servers.
• Beware of vendor lock-in. Be sure you know what's involved in exporting your data or custom app components, should you someday decide to switch vendors.

The Web-application model is already creating a "friction-free" environment for using applications because of its de-emphasis on installing applications and the new ways to pay for applications--ad-supported, application rentals, and transaction fees. This emerging model will dramatically increase the reach of applications to many more users and will make it easy to choose from among a growing selection of apps.

Expect Web apps to become increasingly faster and more feature-rich, as Internet bandwidth and browser app-development capabilities improve. In particular, collaborative functions will gain in popularity and convenience.

As wireless access becomes more ubiquitous, Web apps will find a footing in uses where untethered computing is a must. And as sub-PC "appliance" devices proliferate, the need for apps built on the browser platform, rather than on proprietary client application programming interfaces, will continue to rise.

Finally, the ASP market is still in its formative stages. Small businesses, with their relatively limited IT resources, will likely be the most eager early adopters. But as IT managers at large companies see the model mature, they'll pick and choose among ASPs that best harvest the advantages of Web applications and mitigate any potential drawbacks.

Justin Fielding is CEO of Apps.com Inc. He was previously a product manager at Microsoft, Vermeer, and Lotus Development. He can be reached at jfielding@apps.com

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Illustration by Jon Conrad

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