I got to thinking about all the products or even industries that the iPhone app store will disrupt towards pure software businesses.  Here are a few I came up with:  calculators, remote controls, video cameras, point and shoot cameras, organizers, GPS devices, mobile gaming, and I am sure many many more.

Truth is almost any industry you can imagine is being driven increasingly by software.  Cars, media, computers, home appliances, switches and routers - you name it, it has a huge and growing software component.  We at Rackspace are not immune.  We are investing heavily in our software development capabilities as our offers grow from core dedicated computing services to include software powered cloud computing services.  Making software is at the center of our future.  I bet you it is at the core of your company's future too.

Here is a story about FreshDirect, an online grocer, writing "thousands of lines of code" to optimize how they pack boxes.  Below is a photo of the upcoming Tesla dashboard - one big screen powered by software.  The world is changing.

What does this mean for most businesses?  A few things, I think:

1.  IT and software/product engineering are not the same thing.  Both are really important, but one supports the business, the other builds the business.  Do not treat them as the same.  Especially as businesses transition to needing more software development in their core offer, they tend to rely on their traditional IT organization to deliver.  You need to create a focused group on building customer value.

2.  You cannot outsource something core.  Used to depending on an outsourcer or offshoring shop?  Those can be tools, but if software hits your core (and the argument is it is hitting your core faster than you think), you better get good at it.  Invest accordingly.

3.  If you don't keep your best developers happy (and challenged), be careful.  They will have opportunities.  In fact, have them email me!