Sneak likes to think of himself as a bit of an octopus. Well, not a bit of an octopus – like some flopping half-arm, as that would be quite disturbing. So let's start that again.

Sneak likes to associate himself with octopi, because both have many long reaching arms – in Sneak's case colleagues.

There used to be more similarities – mostly associated with the spraying of ink, but since Sneak stopped using a typewriter this has become much less of a part of his daily work routine. Which is a shame.

Anyway, one of Sneak's tentacles just got back from a trip with Infor, the enterprise software vendor. Infor likes to explain its approach to creating systems, specifically a service orientated architecture, by comparing it to the Boeing 747, a plane with a 39 year old design that is still flying, economically today.

The secret of the 747's success is, apparently, the fact that it is built – and enhanced – on a component basis. Something is old and rubbish? Snap it out and stick in a new one. Want a new engine? Yeah, well shove this one under the bonnet? It is this, Infor suggests, that make it so much like its own platforms. Want an update? Then just shove it in. Things will work fine afterwards and everyone will be happy

According to Sneak's tentacle – yeah, tentacle, this is a bad example to use when you are hours away from depositing a journalist on a 747 airplane. And even more so when you are dumping them in economy for a ten hour flight.

Such a passenger will soon lose all sympathy for the plane and how it is made once they are folded cricket-like into a space that must have been greenlit by the world's shortest man. He Pingping, who only reaches 73 centimeters (2.4 feet) in height, would probably have enjoyed the journey in seats that have been so componentized that they have started breeding. Sneak's colleague did not.

Hopefully Infor's solutions can scale up in a bit more of a comfortable way. Otherwise Sneak feels very sorry for its users.