Teaching Mom About PaaS
Despite the fact that I wasn’t born in Missouri, I am very much a “show me” kind of a guy. Abstract technology only excites me so much and I need to touch, see, or hear something before I’m convinced it truly is a better mousetrap.
In a recent No Jitter article, Zang from the Inside Out, I wrote about my adventures with Avaya’s brand new platform as a service (PaaS) offering. To satisfy myself that I understood what I was looking at, I rolled up my sleeves, cranked out some Java code, and sent and received scores of RESTful web services calls.
While I can’t claim to have written an application anyone would be willing to buy, I did develop enough of a feel for the APIs to write the article and sound as if I knew what I was talking about.
It’s not easy for some people to see the value in PaaS offerings. Developer types might get excited about APIs and open architectures, but business unit leaders need to see demonstrable solutions. Knowing that you can intercept calls midstream is not an ROI story. Programmatically processing SMS texts isn’t the next generation of high touch customer service.
In the show me spirit, the folks at Zang are helping people wrap their heads around communications PaaS by developing and releasing applications that turn their web services interfaces into things you can touch, see, and hear.
Their first offering is not only useful and fun, but it’s quite timely. Mother’s Day is just around the corner and busy folks like you and me might need a little help in honoring the important women in our lives. While the Zang Mother’s Day Call Mom Service isn’t a replacement for flowers or taking Mom out for dinner, time zones and distance might make that impossible. But even if Mom is just down the street, I invite you to click the link, play with the application, and see for yourself the possibilities of PaaS. Both you and Mom just might learn a little something from the experience.