And overall the IT community needs to develop a coherent vision of where it's headed as it moves beyond client/server.

One thing is clear: The industry and its technology are rapidly evolving toward a new and exciting future, and the network will be at its center.

Like it or not, SOA is approaching rapidly, driven by the basic business need to improve efficiency, respond faster, and do more with less. And over the next decade nearly every application and technology used today will need to evolve rapidly to keep up.

Bert Latamore is a journalist with 10 years' experience in daily newspapers and 25 in the computer industry. He has written for several computer industry and consumer publications. He lives in Linden, Va., with his wife, two parrots and a cat.