CLOUD COMPUTING fundamentally changes the relationship between a business and its software provider, according to Dr Steve Garnett, head of Salesforce. com in Europe.

With this computing model, a business never has to install software on its systems other than a web browser.

As a result of this flexibility, businesses have more power to walk away from a provider.

“The customer has huge say,” Dr Garnett says. “The ability to move is a huge incentive for the vendor to get it right.”

In reality, walking away is not as simple as flicking a switch, but it is much easier with cloud computing than it was in the past, when software was installed on a company’s own servers, he says.

“It is feasible and doable. It certainly wasn’t in the old world. This is a service culture – if you don’t provide a good service, people will stop subscribing.”

Delivering computer programs as a service over the internet has led Salesforce.com founder Marc Benioff to stir controversy by talking about the “death of software”.

Dr Garnett has clearly been reading from the same playbook. He describes the industry model of annual software maintenance contracts as “not far off blackmail” and “getting away with murder”.

Dr Garnett also suggests that the reason why the adoption of cloud computing had been slow to date was not due to business reluctance, but because traditional software providers did not want to cannibalise their own revenue streams.

“Why isn’t the industry moving faster to cloud computing? They’re trying to hold back the tide. They would like the world to go back to 1999.”

In time, though, all kinds of software could be delivered through the internet, he adds.

“There’s no technical reason why any of these markets – warehouse management, supply-chain management, HR, general ledgers, accounts payable, inventory, expenses or procurement – can’t be provided [via cloud computing].”

People familiar with consumer cloud services such as Facebook are demanding similar features in their business software, Dr Garnett says.

“There is no reason why business applications can’t be as easy, as accessible and as secure as in the consumer world.

“The idea that it takes three years to roll out a program is hogwash.”

Fears over the security of data hosted in an offsite facility are unfounded, he adds.

“Business applications are only different because you want your data and your access to be secure,” Dr Garnett concludes, “and those boxes are ticked.”