Data as a utility.

The concept of sharing distributed resources is not new. Since the late 1960s, much work has been devoted to developing distributed systems, but with mixed success. The Service Oriented Architecture is a truly new methodology that will impact all areas of web services. The potential of this technology is absolutely discontinuous, disruptive, even revolutionary compared to the centralized client-server and the application-specific overlay models of current distributed applications. It is going to fundamentally change the way businesses cooperatively exchange data. It is going to drive a new generation of completely automated system-to-system interaction that will leverage a data integration fabric. This requires a dynamic medium, one that automatically exchanges metadata in various proprietary formats. Making metadata transformation modular, dynamic, and flexible. The subtle symbiosis of dependence has emerged where data and processes become inextricably bound together across organizations. Data as a utility, easily and automatically exchanged between autonomous systems, as simple as flipping a light switch. Such a medium is at hand and the continued evolution of metadata interoperability will change the nature and value of communication more profoundly than anything before it.