The write stuff from reseller to developer

Opportunities: HP clearly brings to bear an intriguing future for resellers that are building out a software development practice. WebOS as a platform may have stagnated when Palm was a standalone company, but now with HP focusing on growing its cloud business and with chief executive officer Leo Apotheker having a deep background in enterprise software, the opportunities for developing on the WebOS platform could be enormous. Much of this will depend on HP’s engaging with the channel and executing delivery of tools that resellers use to tie the back end of the enterprise to the edge of the network with software.

Remember that HP is the world’s biggest computer company and for much of the past decade it has strongly encouraged its channel partners to lead with the entire HP product stack.

Challenges: HP doesn’t have a WebOS tablet in the market yet, and every day that passes without one is a day that RIM, Microsoft, Apple and Google (and its partners) gain customers and advantage. We are told HP will have its tablets ready by year’s end, and it’s already been showing off demo units.

In addition, the WebOS app store is, to be kind, lacking. There are very few apps that are compelling — and it’s hard to find any that would, on their own, convince enterprises to standardise on WebOS. Although the tools are solid and could steal away iOS developers, resellers looking to build a software practice may wait to see HP move more aggressively.

Differentiation: Palm’s WebOS was built out of the culture that created the Palm Pilot — a product that revolutionised the mobile platform. HP revolutionised, in many ways, the idea of technology for everyday business. The HP-Palm team is one that has stood the test of time.

Platform: Azure

Microsoft has been saying for almost two years in private discussions with resellers and publicly, that it will move its product line to the cloud — from the desktop to the data centre. More recently, with the open beta of Office 365, that strategy has begun to resolve into focus.

The centrepiece of its cloud strategy is Microsoft Azure — its infrastructure platform for developers. It is integrated into Windows for those fluent in Visual Basic and .Net, it should not be difficult to take the plunge.

Some industry observers have said that Microsoft has built this with a Windows “lock-in” for developers.

For something as simple as integrating the Windows Azure development into your environment, Windows Azure Tools for Microsoft Visual Studio requires .Net Framework 3.5 SP1 and either Visual Studio 2008 SP1 (Standard or above), Visual Web Developer 2008 Express Edition with SP1 or Visual Studio 2010 (Standard or above) or Visual Web Developer 2010 Express Edition.