On DZone.com today Giorgio Sironi offers some of his opinions on web applications as enterprise software.

In this article we'll focus on a case study on enterprise software where the porting failed, to list the issues of introducing a web application into the enterprise, and hopefully pave the way for future successes. This is kind of a written retrospective.

He briefly touches on some of the advantages first, mentioning the portability they offer and the fact that it's an "automatic upgrade" for users without having to install additional software. He also talks about a case study of an application that failed but also covers things learned along the way like:

• How complex the domain the application lives in could be (enterprise needs from enterprise software)
• Worries about data portability
• Struggles with the limitations of the browser (like working with large file downloads)
• and, of course, the huge amount of requirements that come with the application just because of the needs of the company