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IP.4.IT Special Coverage: The "Google-ization" of IT: Page 2 of 5

"Google serves as an early prototype of what is possible," said Strassman, pointing particularly at the ability for developers to take multiple Google APIs--such as for search and maps--and "mash" them up to create altogether new applications. Such an approach not only yields innovative new apps but represents a major shift in the cost-structure of IT. "This is something way beyond the current capability of most applications," he said.

Added Strassman: "It took us $2 trillion and 50 years of computing to get where we are today. It's going to take another 10 to 25 years and $20 trillion to create a global real-time [network computing] environment" that will be the major economic force of the next century.

VoIP provider LignUp Corp. built its business and is helping customers re-build theirs by taking advantage of the notion of converged networks and service-oriented apps, said Kevin Nethercott, LignUp's president and COO.

"There's a new 'supply chain' for telecom apps and services that we all now have access to, using well-known and standard interfaces," said Nethercott, calling that a significant change from the past, when enterprises were tied to single-vendor PBXs, inflexible carrier services and pre-integrated application stacks.

Added Nethercott, with a twist: "We all thought voice over IP was the killer app, but then we realized that communicating isn't really an application at all. It's inherent in the network. Killer applications don't exist within the VoIP space--you folks [in the enterprise] already operate and own the killer IP applications," he said, pointing to the line-of-business applications enterprises rely on to run their businesses.