Applications: Sure, the software-as-a-service model has its attractive points. But as is the case with many technologies, the upfront ticket is only the beginning of TCO. To gauge the real cost of SaaS, Ephraim Schwartz whips out his calculator and does the math for you, based on two major providers, NetSuite and Salesforce.com. Before I get ahead of myself here, though, it’s important to note “that price isn’t everything.” In some cases, customers find themselves tailoring the business to fit what a provider offers, a situation Schwartz explains, that could lead SaaS into a dead end. “But something tells me big changes are ahead.” Columnist’s corner: Lots of college kids go somewhere with bountiful sun and booze and very little clothing for spring break, but our Off the Record author found himself “driving east with a COBOL manual in the back seat of my car.” So what if he didn’t find bikers and bikinis but, instead, uncovered that a contract programmer was operating on finger math rather than normal division operators. Not as much fun? Perhaps, but it landed him a job offer before graduation. If you’re wondering why I keep defending this guy, well, so am I. How I started my IT career.Podcasts: The latest SOA Report topics include Semantics, ontologies, the Semantic Web and SOA. Taken together, those pretty much make this particular podcast about, well, pretty much everything related to a services-centric philosophy. Oh wait, I almost forgot one. “Formally known as the Semantic Web, Web 3.0 promises yet another Internet revolution. It would provide the foundation for systems that can reason in a human fashion.” The Semantic Web, by the by, is not entirely new. Tim Berners-Lee, in fact, delivered a keynote about it in the ’90’s. “Now that we’re starting to build service-oriented architectures … people are understanding its value.” Tune into SOA Report. Software Development