Lucas – you make some very thought-provoking points, especially about how future applications may be replaced by event-driven task-oriented chunks of functionality. Certainly the ubiquity of networks between organisations and their customers/partners, coupled with a degree of protocol standardisation, has given business strategists the expectation that anything is possible. Of course different types of organisations (or even departments with a business) have different very requirements on their IT. Some industries that are very people-intensive (e.g. construction, healthcare) might use IT in a more fluid way as communications and processes are more dynamic. However others do the same things over and over (e.g. banking, manufacturing) and IT is often about improving the efficiency of those fixed, and relatively static, processes. Therefore the need for ultimate flexibility (and certainly when traded with performance and/or end-to-end stability) will vary.

We’re certainly living through interesting times…