-- Collaboration. Taken together, blogs, RSS, wikis, Google and WebEx are redefining the way enterprise information is gathered, updated and communicated. The costs are radically lower than traditional knowledge management and collaboration tools.

-- Multimedia. The Apple iPod has rapidly emerged as an inexpensive and friendly way to distribute both audio and, increasingly, video materials across corporate networks.

-- Voice over IP. As an alternative to expensive companywide VOIP rollouts, many telecommuters, remote office employees and others whose calls may not be a high security concern are using Skype and Vonage.

-- Software as a service. The success of Salesforce.com is just the most visible sign of a whole new wave of on-demand applications that are often a simple, low-risk way for companies to experiment with new software.

-- Security. Although the firewall deperimeterization debate rages on, many companies have concluded that it may no longer be useful to distinguish between users inside and outside their firewalls and that strong authentication and encryption over the Internet is really the only long-term individual network-access approach.