If you listen to Scott and Bill, all you have to do is to choose between Sun and Microsoft to define your e-Enterprise software infrastructure. I wish the answer was that simple. Au contraire, thanks to the IT industry, choices are unlimited and go far beyond Sun, Microsoft, and Oracle. As a matter of fact, choosing the right implementation strategy from the vast architectural and vendor options is becoming increasingly difficult.

In Chapter 6, I have outlined a high-level, logical technology architecture that contains high levels of abstractions such as e-Application Rules, e-Application Distribution/Integration, e-Data, and e-Networks. In Chapter 7, you learned the driving business components that primarily define the reusable e-Application Rules. In this final chapter, I will introduce some of the emerging technology components that should be utilized to implement these higher-level abstraction layers from a pure technology perspective.

Although this chapter discusses a few selected emerging technologies, it is not intended to be a recipe for physical implementation. Rather, it is intended to explore important standard technologies that should be understood, considered, independently verified, and validated for each e-Initiative.