Reduced deployment costs - the real futureproofing
Monday, June 13, 2011 at 03:37PM Apple continues to supply lessons to the enterprise industry. Speed as a feature is certainly one that has spread to the SaaS community.
Externally driving configuration management and document storage, as iCloud has planned, offers some very interesting possibilities.
Consider the costs of a new computer or server. The vast majority of costs are incurred through new configuration, new software, and testing. Bare metal imaging doesn't resolve that much since the new hardware might need different drivers than the old hardware. Truly reducing deployment costs of new hardware - as Apple has done with the Mac line, can increase hardware sales while reducing overall costs of the consumer.
I am impressed with Apple's ability to abandon obsolete hw platforms. They don't try to make hardware last forever - at some point - they make the new stuff run on new hardware. Apple recently said iOS 5 wouldn't be supported on the iPhone 3G. So support is ending 40 months after intro. Given the availability of new subsidies every 24 months coupled with the residual value of old iPhones as iPods, that seems fair.
And, of course, its almost entirely a financial matter - plug the new iOS device in and old applications and content generally run fine.
What if a Dell worked like that? Or an AV reciever? Replacement costs + compatibility slow down new hardware purchase - if they built like Apple, they could sell more hardware.