Characterizing the next-generation software systems 

Software applications are increasingly complicated yet sophisticated. Highly integrated systems are the new norm these days. Enterprise-grade applications ought to be seamlessly integrated with several third-party software components running in distributed and disparate systems. Increasingly, software applications are made out of a number of interactive, transformative, and disruptive services in an ad hoc manner on an as-needed basis. Multi-channel, multimedia, multi-modal, multi-device, and multi-tenant applications are becoming pervasive and persuasive. There are also enterprise, cloud, mobile, Internet of Things (IoT), blockchain, cognitive, and embedded applications hosted in virtual and containerized environments. Then, there are industry-specific and vertical applications (energy, retail, government, telecommunication, supply chain, utility, healthcare, banking, and insurance, automobiles, avionics, and robotics) being designed and delivered via cloud infrastructures.

There are software packages, homegrown software, turnkey solutions, scientific, and technical computing services, and customizable and configurable software applications to meet distinct business requirements. In short, there are operational, transactional, and analytical applications running on private, public, and hybrid clouds. With the exponential growth of connected devices, smart sensors, and actuators, fog gateways, smartphones, microcontrollers, and single board computers (SBCs), the software enabled data analytics and proximate moves to edge devices to accomplish real-time data capture, processing, decision-making, and action.

We are destined to move towards real-time analytics and applications. Thus, it is clear that software is purposefully penetrative, participative, and productive. Largely, it is quite a software-intensive world.