IDG Contributor Network: What's wrong with PCs as a Service

(Disclosure: Microsoft is a client of the author.)

One of the fascinating things about the technology market is how it goes in circles and not only forgets the past but misses the point. For instance, let’s take the recent mega trend: PCs as a Service, or as we’ll call it, “PaaS.” Most think this is brand new, but it is in fact an attempt to return to what we had with the mainframe. An appliance on our desk and like it was back then the hardware is, and should be, largely transparent and, I expect, as these services mature they hardware will change dramatically and alternatives like Windows on ARM will start to look more attractive.

What is also interesting is that just about the time the last large mainframe/terminal implementations were being yanked out by their roots, IT started demanding desktop computing as a service again. This was back in the 1990s, and now about two whopping decades later, major OEMs are putting programs together to make it happen and reinventing the wheel to make it happen.  

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