To stay competitive during the next five years, enterprises will increasingly need to operate in real time. Systems will need to be more flexible, externally connected and resilient. The Internet provides the ideal support architecture to make all of this happen. This is because the Internet provides the foundation for Web services, grid computing, portals, peer-to-peer and wireless connectivity, all of which represent the technologies that will transport your enterprise nearer to real-time operation.

The key word is "nearer." Even the fastest real-world enterprises will always remain a bit inefficient in their response times. The closer you come to being a real-time enterprise, the better will be your interactions with your suppliers, partners and customers.

The journey to real time will be challenging for other reasons, as well. These fairly new computing methods, such as Web services, require technical underpinnings so that they can effectively connect disparate systems across the vast Internet architecture. Emerging service-oriented architectures, service-oriented development of application (SODA) approaches and Web services standards will help make these connections possible.

Join us in this crucial chase toward competitive advantage, in which the Internet will blaze the trail (see "Web Services Power the Real-Time Enterprise").

Whit Andrews

Editor in Chief

Internet Platforms and Web Services

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