Google is to Microsoft...

Google is to Microsoft as SOA is to Client-Server.

Google is adding about 100 new employees a week and Microsoft is reorganizing its business to stop the departure of talent. What image is more indicative of the end of an era (and the beginning of a new one) than this?

Among other things, Google represents the first and clearest example of the success of Professional Open Source, of software-as-service. Its success should stand in our minds to represent everything that's tired and obsolete about Microsoft's transparent, corrupt (but natural) messages against Open Source & Free Software. Google itself -- built upon Open Source technology -- is the manifestation of the open flow of ideas and connections made possible by the Internet.

If we are entering a new era, too, of IT systems built on open software standards (see MassGov), of Service Oriented Architectures (“SOAs”) and On-Demand modular components that map cleanly to business processes, what is the place of the inflexible Client-Server, or shall we call it the “Rich Client,” model? If you are holding back your organization from this change, you will be replaced.

The differences between Google and Microsoft -- their provenance and their culture -- are illustrative: one is of the Internet...