SaaS : $19.3 billion by 2011

Check this out

"According to Gartner, the market for SaaS applications grew by 26 percent last year, from $5 billion in 2005 to $6.3 billion in 2006. The consulting firm expects demand for SaaS to continue growing at a 25 percent compound annual rate over the next five years, to $19.3 billion by 2011. Most of those dollars are going to new entrants rather than established software vendors like Oracle (Quote), SAP and Microsoft (Quote)."

For full story - check this out "Vendors Missing the SaaS Wave By Michael Hickins " [http://www.aspnews.com/news/article.php/3664361]

More Power per Source Code line

Now this example is just hypothetical and grossly overestimation of the reality. But the point is, we are writing less line of code to achieve same results. In my opinion, this is because

1. Powerful programming constructs and smart compilers [for example, C# closure]

2. Advances in Algorithm and Hardware

3. Greater level of code level abstraction

For Example, Consider following example in C# and same code compiled by MS CLR

[Example from : http://www.thinkingms.com/pensieve/CommentView,guid,fd10bfa8-1aeb-4353-84c8-cd80e418424f.aspx]

// Display powers of 2 up to the exponent 8:
foreach(int i in Power(2, 8))
Console.Write("{0} ", i);

Now this code will be compiled as

public static IEnumerable Power(int number, int exponent)
{
int counter =0;
int result = 1;
while(counter++ < result =" result">
{
result = result * number;
yield result;
}
}

So the point is, foreach is an elegant syntax. It also hides a lot of complexity at the programming construct level. Now, the level of abstraction and its impact on performance is altogether a different topic.

Still, if we are using high level language like C# or Java for developing business applications then this abstraction and syntax simplicity is good. [This argument is based on a long discussion with my friend Jon Saltzman]

Again, I heard an argument that this abstraction will result in increased programmer productivity. I am not sure about that. Anyway, point is modern programming languages provide more power per source code line

Gartner Hype Cycle

Time and again I have seen and heard discussion on the rise and fall of a particular technology. With multi core processors and Internet based distributed programming – this debate is getting sharper by each passing day.

I found one tool to analyze the rise and fall of any technology against the proven industry data – “Gartner Cycle”. Here is my take on current state of the technology...