The notion of building bridges to service providers and managing the interaction will become more commonplace in 2006 as we learn to accept that many services we leverage within an enterprise are services we may not host. The technology exists today. We need to define and refine our approaches now, including architectures, enabling technology, and use of standards. Most enterprises are way behind.
We are moving toward a day when most of our enterprise applications may be delivered as services, and thus provide a more economical way to approach information technology management with businesses going forward. This is also the great equalizer since businesses, both large and small, will have access to the same number and quality of services, much as they do with Web sites today. Shared services will create many opportunities, including better agility and the ability to operate a business with fewer IT resources. In essence, we're moving to Web 2.0 where service delivery over the Internet will be added to information delivery as the key strategic value of the Web to businesses, as well as extending the Web as a true platform.
