Welcome to Web 3.0: Now Your Other Computer is a Data Center

For almost ten years now, we have been witnessing a decisive shift from client-server software to software as a service. Google, eBay, and Amazon.com established the value of multi-tenant internet applications in the consumer market, and salesforce.com, Google, and others have been proving that this same multi-tenant model is winning in the enterprise as well.

This shift to Web-based applications has generated two powerful waves so far. Now, we are seeing a third wave—one that we are calling Web 3.0—and it may prove to be the most significant and disruptive yet to the traditional software industry.

While the world doesn’t need another buzzword, I feel that both the emerging generation of entrepreneurs and developers, as well as traditional software ISVs, need to grasp the enormity of Web 3.0 and its potential to create change, disruption, and opportunity. Web 3.0 is about replacing existing software platforms with a new generation of platforms as a service.

To put Web 3.0 into perspective, we need to look at all of the major waves in the history of the Web. They are not defined by distinct periods of time, but are best seen as overlapping waves of adoption.

Web 1.0: Anyone Can Transact
Web 1.0 was about the emergence of the “killer app” from companies like eBay, Amazon.com, and Google. Although we thought of them as Web sites at the time, they were really amazing applications with a level of functionality, ease of use, and scale that had rarely been seen before by the average consumer. Transactions, not just of goods but of knowledge, became ubiquitous and instant. The efficiency and transparency that was once the domain of global financial markets was now at the command of individual consumers and businesses. Web 1.0 remains a huge driving force today and will continue to be for some time.

Web 2.0: Anyone Can Participate
Web 2.0 is about the next generation of applications on the Internet, featuring user-generated content, collaboration, and community. Anyone can participate in content creation. Posting a viral video on YouTube, tagging photos from a party on Flickr, or writing about politics on Blogspot requires no technical skill, just an Internet connection. Participation changes our idea of content itself: content isn’t fixed at the point of publication—it comes alive. Google’s AdSense became an instant business model in particular for bloggers, and video-sharing sites have rewritten the rules ofdang popular culture and viral content.

Whether you are creating a business around Web 1.0 or 2.0, building massively scalable data centers that are secure, reliable, and highly available is not a job for the faint of heart or shallow of pocket. For companies entering the emerging software as a service industry, the massive time and capital requirements remain a substantial barrier to entry. Moreover, traditional client-server software development is still mired in painful complexity. And the “rewards” for creating a successful application are arduous deployments and maintenance.

Web 3.0: Anyone Can Innovate
Web 3.0 changes all of this by completely disrupting the technology and economics of the traditional software industry. The new rallying cry of Web 3.0 is that anyone can innovate, anywhere. Code is written, collaborated on, debugged, tested, deployed, and run in the cloud. When innovation is untethered from the time and capital constraints of infrastructure, it can truly flourish.

For businesses, Web 3.0 means that SaaS apps can be developed, deployed, and evolved far more quickly and cost-effectively than traditional software of the client-server era. The dramatic reset in economics should help CIOs finally break through the innovation backlog created by the cost and complexity of maintaining client-server apps.

For developers, Web 3.0 means that all they need to create their dream app is an idea, a browser, some Red Bull, and a few Hot Pockets. Because every developer around the world can access the same powerful cloud infrastructures, Web 3.0 is a force for global economic empowerment.

For ISVs, Web 3.0 means that they can spend more time focusing on the core value they want to offer to customers, not the infrastructure to support it. Because code lives in the cloud, global talent pools can contribute to it. Because it runs in the cloud, a truly global market can subscribe to it as a service.

Just ask my friend Jeremy Roche, the CEO of CODA, Europe’s second-largest ERP vendor. CODA successfully navigated the transition from mainframe to client-server, and now it’s facing an even bigger transition to SaaS. Building the infrastructure—not just the data center but the entire software stack as well—would take upwards and $20 million and several years. Instead, Jeremy is using our Force.com platform to get a massive jump-start on this process. His systems engineers will not have to cobble together servers, load balancers, and networking switches and then find a small army of people to tune and maintain them. His software developers won’t have to build a security and sharing model, database or workflow engine—they’ll just use ours. Meanwhile, Jeremy’s team can focus on exactly what they do best: building a killer accounting application. CODA2go will be available this fall, giving Jeremy a big lead on the competition.

Amazon.com, Google, and salesforce.com have spent hundreds of millions of dollars to build these infrastructures already, and a dozen others, including Facebook, MySpace, Ning, Rollbase, Longjump, Dabble db, Intuit, and Coghead, are also offering some form of platform as a service in the cloud.

Creating Value
How much disruption will Web 3.0 cause? An examination of the technology forces at work gives us a good clue:

Vic Gundotra, VP of Engineering at Google, offered this interesting perspective at a recent salesforce.com event. Vic looks at the history of computing, starting with the mainframe era, as two grids: vast computing power vs. low accessibility and terrific ease of deployment vs. poor depth of functionality.

欢迎来到Web 3.0:现在你的其它的电脑就是一个数据中心

  从10年前一直到现在，我们一直在见证一场决定性的变革：从客户端-服务器的软件到作为服务的软件。Google, eBay, 和 Amazon.com等企业在消费市场建立了互连网应用程序的价值，同时salesforce.com，Google，和其它一些公司也一直在证明相同的模式也会在企业级市场取得成功。

  到目前为止基于Web应用程序的转型已经产生了两个强烈的浪潮。现在我们看到了第三个，我们称之为Web 3.0，它可能会证明相对于传统软件产业它是最重要一个。

  世界不需要另外一句行话，我想说的是新生代的企业家，开发者，和传统的独立软件开发商，都需要抓住Web 3.0的巨大机遇，它可能创造机会，变革。Web 3.0是关于使用基于服务的软件平台来替换现有的软件平台。

  为了详细说明Web 3.0，我们需要仔细回顾Web历史上的重要浪潮。它们不是严格按时间定义的，而是交叉重叠在一起的。

Web 1.0: 任何人可以交易

  Web 1.0 是关于来自一些主要的公司，如：eBay, Amazon.com, and Google 的杀手级的应用程序的出现。我们一直认为它们仅仅是网站，但它们实际上是一些令人惊讶的应用程序：功能丰富，容易上手，扩展性强，这些特性以前很少被普通消费者看到过。交易，不仅仅是针对货物的，还有知识的，变的普遍和即时。效率，透明，这个曾经是全球金融市场的领域，现在被个人消费者和商业者占领。Web 1.0在今天依旧是很大的推动力并且在将来持续很长时间。

Web 2.0: 任何人可以参与

  Web 2.0是关于互连网上的下一代应用程序，特点是用户产生内容，合作化，社区化。任何人可以参与到内容的创建中。在YouTube上上传一个视频，在Flickr上上传参加聚会的照片，或者在Blogspot上写自己的政治见解，所有这些都不需要专门技术，仅仅需要连接上互联网。参与改变了我们对于内容的理解：内容不是固定在发布商那里，它是活动在任何地方的。Google的AdSense带来了一个即时的商业模式，尤其对于博客作者，并且视频共享网站已经重写了流行文化和内容过滤的规则。

  当你围绕Web1.0或者2.0创业的时候，建设一个安全的，可扩展的数据中心并不是一项容易的工作。对于进入把软件当成服务的行业，大量的时间和资本依旧是进入的一个门槛。而且，传统的客户端-服务器的软件开发依然复杂。并且创建一个成功的应用程序还需要辛勤的部署和维护。

Web 3.0: 任何人可以创新

   Web 3.0通过改变传统软件行业的技术和经济基础来改变现有的一切。新的Web 3.0强调的是任何人,在任何地点都可以创新。代码编写，协作，调试，测试，部署，运行都在云计算上完成。当创新从时间和资本的约束中解脱出来，它就可以欣欣向荣。

   对于企业来来说，Web 3.0意味着SaaS程序可以比传统的C-S软件更快，更高效的开发，部署，升级。

   对于开发者来说，Web 3.0意味着他们需要创建一个理想的应用程序东西需要的仅仅是一个想法，一个浏览器。因为世界上的每一个开发人员都可以访问强大的云计算，Web 3.0是全球经济的推动力。

  对于独立软件开发商，Web 3.0意味着他们可以花费更多的时间专注提供给客户的核心价值上，而不是支持它的基础架构。因为代码生长在云计算上，全球的精英可以为它做贡献。因为它运行在云计算上，全球的市场都可以把它作为服务来订阅。

  问问我的朋友Jeremy Roche，CODA公司的CEO，CODA是欧洲第二大ERP软件供应商。CODA成功从大型主机转型到客户端-服务器模式，但是现在它面临着一个更大的转型到SaaS上。建立基础架构，不仅仅是数据中心，而是整个软件堆栈，将花费2亿美金和几年的时间。Jeremy正在使用我们的Force.com平台来来开始转变。他们的系统工程师不需要维护服务器，负载均衡，网络交换机，而是找很少的人来调试维护他们。软件开发人员不需要开发安全和共享模型，数据库和工作流引擎-他们只需要用我们的。同时，Jeremy的团队可以专注于他们擅长的：建立一个杀手级的会计软件。CODA2go将会在这个秋天发布，从而让Jeremy在竞争中领先一步。

创造价值

  Web 3.0将带来多大的改变？检查一下工作中的技术变革将带给我们一些好的线索：

  Vic Gundotra，Google工程副总裁，在最近的salesforce.com会议上提出了这个有趣的观点。Vic回顾了计算机的历史，从大型主机的时代开始。

  客户端-服务器时代在两种情况下都导致了极性的反转。计算能力非常容易访问到但是限制于使用的范围。有很强的功能，但是部署非常的困难。Vic说Web 3.0时代消除了这些缺点并潜在的最大化了计算能力，访问，容易部署，功能的深度。就像Vic所说，关键在于行业的领导者，如：Google， salesforce.com和其它的公司应该使运计算更容易访问和更具可编程性，保持深入的连通性，并且使客户端更强大。

  在我们看来，从大型主机到客户机-服务器的迁移对于像IBM,DEC这样的公司是非常痛苦的，但是同时也为新一代的公司，如Microsoft, Oracle, PeopleSoft, and SAP创造了大量的财富。Web 3.0威胁着 Microsoft的.net，BEA和WebSphere。我期待Amazon.com，Facebook, Google, and salesforce.com将会做的更好，我认为能利用上 Web 3.0的公司分布会更为广泛，并且他们可以创造更多的财富和创新。

  我们的一个程序员在他的个人电脑上有一句话生动的描述了Web 3.0精髓。是这样说的："我的其他电脑是一个数据中心"。说明世界上的任何一个程序员可以创造。并且这就是革命的意义。