Fabricators used to buy software in a box. Today, they turn to the cloud. And in the near future, AI tools will change how we interact with computers in ways impossible to foresee.
Computer software has changed a lot since the 80s and 90s. I remember when you could walk into a Barnes & Noble and browse through the software section, perusing shrink-wrapped boxes containing floppy disks or CDs. There was something nice about walking through the software aisle like that, everything in one place, imagining the possibilities. It was exciting.
In 2023, the internet has taken over the world and, with it, software distribution models. You don’t shop for software at a brick-and-mortar store anymore. Instead, most modern software is designed to run in a web browser: Your computer downloads and runs the app every time you visit the website. Instead of buying software once, installing it, and running it on your isolated computer, most software vendors are leaning hard into SaaS: software as a service. You’ll pay a monthly subscription, and in return you can use the most recent version of the software, from any computer, with your up-to-date data, anywhere in the world, at any time.
This is a big change, and not entirely positive. There’s something nice about being able to actually own software. Imagine losing access to your business’s financial information because your subscription expired. Subscriptions mean that the health and safety of your data is dependent on infrastructure and companies that you don’t control. And who knows where they’ll be in 10 years?
On the other hand, data and software in the cloud is inherently safer than data stored on your shop’s computer. You don’t have to worry about a crashed computer causing you to lose all your data. For better or worse, software is moving that direction, and there are definite advantages to using software in the cloud.
