Jason Hiner's blog post is one of numerous opinions on how software is developed in the "new" world of the Internet - new meaning all the buzzwords including cloud computing, SOA, SaaS and Web2.0 - and whether this "new process" for software development and deployment is ready for the enterprise. It is correct that Google is not likely to make the next iPhone - despite the clear potential of the Android platform - but when it comes to the enterprise it is good to have a quick reality check. Naysayers like to compare enterprise software to Web2.0 alternatives claiming that the first one is "bug-free", has "excellent customer support", they "resolve issues immediately, if not sooner", they have "excellent attention to detail" and "strong processes and systems". I like the sound of these so much that I wish I lived in this world these guys are referring to. The only problem is that in the last hour my fully patched Word 2008 - made by the company with those best processes - crashed five times when I tried  to save a .docx document in .doc format, the excellent customer service of another great company - they are great so I don't tell who they are - with equally great processes took 36 hours to validate my new credit card number (they were forwarding my message back and forth between two depts) and one of my clients just called that his business software is crippled by a small but important feature that will be added to the next release by the end of 2010. None of these is a really big deal, being a developer myself I tend to be realistic with expectations. I shared a Google document to get around the .docx compatibility problem quickly, to the unhappy client I suggested to try Severa project and sales management and happily acknowledged that a guy in a Linux t-shirt at a small hosting company - without strict processes - took care of an admin problem in 7 minutes that I didn't even ask him to do, I merely mentioned in a support ticket that I am planning to do it in the near future. 

I'm not suggesting that Google and all those funky Web2.0 startups are ready for the enterprise, but let's be honest: is enterprise software ready for the enterprise?