How I explained SaaS to my wife

Wife: You've been staring at that screen for ages.  What are you doing?

Me: Thinking about writing a post on SaaS.

Wife: On what?

Me: Software As A Service.

Wife: Is that what you were telling me about the other day?  Service-oriented thingy?

Me: Service-oriented Architecture.  Yeah, it's similar, but instead of little services which you can use to build your program, you get a whole program as a service.  Imagine Excel on the internet - or the "cloud" as it's being called - you don't have to install it on your computer, you just go on the internet to use it.

Wife: The internet?  Isn't that slow? 

Me: It can be, so you need to be careful what kind of programs you do this with.  For instance, there's a company called SalesForce who offer a Customer Relationship Management program via SaaS.  Companies use it because it saves them having to install and manage lots of computers to put this big program on.

Wife: Interesting...

Me: Are you being sarcastic again?

Wife: No, not at all.  I'm just wondering if they do HaaS?

Me: What?

Wife: Husband As A Service.  I still need that light upstairs fixed.

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What is Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) - Competitive Services

I have been reviewing ITIL 3 with a view to updating my article on Service Management, and came across the notion of competitive services.

This is a very common notion when one looks at services in the usual, non-SOA sense where services are being offered in a market place and have to compete, but does it apply to SOA?

Well, clearly if you are looking at services offered in the internet by companies engaged in Cloud computing and such like, e.g. Google or Amazon, the answer is yes, but what about your typical corporate enterprise landscape?

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