Distributed Computing Environment, Common Object Request Broker Architecture, Web Services, Service Oriented Architecture, the list will go on forever. Underlying technologies might change, but the overarching concept remains the same: harness the power of the network to get exponential value out of multiple systems owned and managed by multiple parties.

This category will follow the evolution of the concept for a Service Oriented Architecture, track the standards that will make it a cost-effective solution for the enterprise, and explain why Business Process Management might be the killer application for it.