Are we (virtually) there yet?

However, in the new virtualised world we can choose. We can stop using the billing engine in the CRM system and use the one in the ERP system.

In fact, we can dump both and buy a specific, highly flexible (or very cheap) billing engine from someone else completely.

As we are not using so much functionality from the CRM and ERP vendors, we expect to pay less. But all of a sudden the revenues dip, Wall Street gets wary and the incumbent software companies catch a big cold.

Is this bad news for virtualisation? No. Virtualisation is happening as we speak, and SOA will happen with or without the blessing of today's incumbent software vendors.

Utility computing and grid computing architectures are dependent on virtualisation, and trying to force users to adopt a single vendor in this space is a non-starter.

The emphasis will fall on the software vendors, which must look at how granular they should go, and how they will license this functionality.

Otherwise, the memories of other large software companies that are no longer around should be borne in mind. The once-mighty Ashton Tate, WordPerfect and Siebel all point to how the markets can change.

You can download the PDF version of this article here.