Now the pendulum is swinging back to decentralized IT, with the emergence of advanced, collaborative, and richly interactive applications under the banners of Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) and Web 2.0, making possible a dizzying array of new business opportunities and technologies that catch the fancy of entrepreneurs, developers, and dreamers everywhere. While the first decade or so of the Web, not even casually referred to as Web 1.0, continues to have a significant impact on the way that companies run their business and make money, it doesn't threaten the current power or structure of the IT organization as much as the newer movement to SOA and Web 2.0 have the potential to do.
The swing back to decentralization encouraged by service orientation in combination with the Web 2.0 movement does not sit well with the current structure of the enterprise IT organization because it fundamentally shifts the center of power and responsibility from the IT department to buiness units and individuals. Just as the PC revolution and the rise of client/server led to enormous support headaches and a siloed organizational structure, the thought of distributing the powerful collaborative capabilities today's technology enables strikes fear in the heart of many an IT admin and executive alike.
