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Web 2.0 Seduces the Enterprise (continued)

Blogs and wikis seem to be the most commonly used Web 2.0 tools in the enterprise, says Young, with RSS and social networking applications making some headway. This is likely to change soon, as Microsoft has added Web 2.0 pieces to SharePoint (basic blogging and wiki functionality) and other big players like IBM, SAP, Oracle and BEA are, says Young, "bringing these tools into the enterprise as part of the typical application upgrade."

Young says that IBM, with Lotus Connections, has the most complete Web 2.0 suite and that although hard sales numbers haven't been released, the company has "said anecdotally that they're doing better than they'd hoped up to this point."

These large, traditional enterprise software providers seem to be battling it out with scores of nimble Web 2.0 startups for business market share, but the most likely scenario, says Young, is that many smaller companies will provide discrete applications for, partner with and eventually be purchased by the bigger fish. The vast majority of CIOs want suites that will provide all of these tools and more, preferably in a one-stop shop scenario. Meanwhile, some examples of well-positioned small and specialized companies include SixApart for blogging; Atlassian Confluence and SocialText for wikis; Communispace for social networking; and NewsGator for RSS.

Web 2.0 tools will inevitably be ubiquitous within most enterprises, which will lead to fundamental changes in the way some business is conducted. This will be disruptive -- but the familiar, major brand packaging, support and security, and the slow, piecemeal adoption of the available tools means we're likely to look back on Enterprise 2.0 as less a revolution than a critical and natural step in IT evolution.

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