Entrepreneur Frank McCracken of Ireland’s Saaspoint Ltd. has urged his countrymen to take on the challenge and pursue the opportunity of on-demand development, telling them at today’s Enterprise Ireland summit in Dublin that "We have been able to develop full-blown on-demand applications in forty days or less" — and adding that any lesser pace of innovation means a risk of being "left behind."

McCracken hailed the "democratised and depoliticised" on-demand platform that frees innovators from the confinement of "historical customer platform decisions." I’d hasten to add that on-demand customers aren’t being offered a rip-and-replace scenario: the Integration offerings on AppExchange, for example, are a list that’s both rich and reputable. What McCracken accurately identifies, though, is the hybrid vigor of the on-demand ecosystem, with its ease of entry for the new and its facilities for coexistence with the old — presenting an opportunity to outsource technical risk for the buyer and the seller alike.