The à la carte Internet

If you’re running Windows, you’re most likely using a fairly well-defined set of applications and tools. If you have a Mac, you have a different set of applications, but it’s still fairly well-defined. These applications are mostly prepackaged, preinstalled and preconfigured, and there is a rigid framework in place that determines how you interact with them and which organizational computing resources you can access during such interactions.

Although this has been the ‘tried and true' traditional solution, the increasing proliferation of non-Windows devices (Chromebooks, tablets, even smartphones) re-heats the issue. Market demand for cloud-hosted Web applications is increasing as an alternative model to prepackaged sets of applications mentioned above. The demand is not just for the increasing variety and robustness of on-demand Web services but also for the simplification of application and resource management, as well as for the cost savings enabled by Software as a Service (SaaS).

The outcome of all this is that the Internet will provide more of an à la carte menu of applications from which users and organizations can pick and choose on-demand (e.g., Google Docs, Salesforce.com). Web applications do have a downside when compared to the prepackaged, local, “native” applications: they are often not as sophisticated and provide a somewhat degraded user experience. This is because the locally installed applications have unfettered access to the full capabilities and horsepower of the underlying platform. Web applications, on the other hand, are constrained by the limitation and restrictions of the Web browser on which they run.

As more and more users find themselves requiring access to Windows applications and desktops from non-Wintel (Windows OS running on Intel-based platforms)devices while also utilizing Web applications for other needs, the world is becoming more complex. Take the Google Chromebook as an example. It has no desktop, or at least not what most people would consider a desktop. A Chrome Web browser serves as your operating system or, more accurately, your desktop. No setup is required, no configuration, no software installation or patches.  In short, the IT staffer and user’s dream come true.

Here’s the catch: If you’re using a Chromebook (or a tablet, or even a smartphone for that matter) and want to use PowerPoint or Word, or any other Windows application that is business-critical to you or your organization, you’re out of luck. Or are you? What if there was a way to enable non-Wintel devices to access Windows applications and desktops and run them within a browser window? Cue HTML5.

HTML5, the latest iteration of hypertext markup language, which is the language used to build the Web, is making it easier to create Web applications. HTML5 also makes it possible to develop new tools and technologies enabling users to connect to Windows desktops and applications from a browser, that is, a Windows desktop displayed and delivered wholly within a browser window. This frees users from relying only on “Windows-capable” end-user equipment. Imagine running Word within a browser window on an iPad or a Chromebook. Well, you can. Not only that: Non-Wintel users can finally be presented with ubiquitous access to both Web and Windows apps, regardless of the end-user device – a capability that lowers IT departmental workload since maintenance is required on the end-user equipment.