Software is a unique output of our civilization, in the sense that it is one of the few things that are a product of pure thought. In software, description is creation.
A description is the blueprint of a thought, transferred from your brain to a computer, which will then do your bidding. The infinite possibilities and the malleability of the solutions are the drivers of the modern civilization.
The malleability of software ensures that we can improve, update, fix and mold it to our specific needs and requirements. However, each new fix or update to the software potentially fragments the customer base in terms of the specific revision that they are running. Each support call now becomes a treasure hunt, where you have to first determine what fixes the given install has, and then search your knowledge base for appropriate fixes, which some other customer has already been using for a long time.
Enter, cloud based web applications. They are a paradigm shift that turned the above on its head. If the customer has nothing to install, they have nothing to update. However, that is a power that needs to be wielded with great care.
As a customer, you can always be sure that you are using the latest and the greatest version, with all the improvements and fixes. Gone are the days when you bought a license for, say office 2007, and had two or 3 versions worth of great improvements fly by when you could afford to buy a license for the then current version; to be obsoleted soon enough. Gone is the treasure hunt for the right version number and the right patch levels.
