By Richard Koman for SiliconValleyWatcher

We're a little behind here, but I want to make sure folks are caught up on the running conversation between Tom and Network World editor John Gallant. In point/counterpoint fashion, (if some of are still around who actually watched 60 Minutes in the 70s, or Saturday Night Live for that matter), here's a recap of the debate.

• In Deadly dull IT markets ..." Tom claimed that three things will keep enterprise IT in the doldrums: Maintenance spending is rising, so there is less money for new technologies; the market is controlled by one or two large players which discourages innovation; there is too much FUD in IT markets; and enterprises themselves will wither under the assault of small, nimble companies and the weight of legacy infrastructure.
  
  
• John responded that Tom was dead wrong, and laid out exactly why he thinks the enterprise is at a most interesting crossroads:
  
  

  We are at the end of the client/server era of computing. What the next era will be is not clear yet. That presents vast potential and vast risk to enterprises, who have to navigate major changes in the way they build and use computing, network and storage technology, and for the vendors who have made their fortunes on client/server. Some of them will choose the dangerous and self-destructive path of trying to protect the current ways of doing IT, failing to learn the lessons of earlier dinosaurs who fell in market upheavals of yesteryear.

  
  

  Where we are today is analogous to the end of mainframe and mini-computer eras and the emergence of PCs, networking, the Web - shifts of vast magnitude. We're on the verge of a revolution because enterprises need IT more than ever to compete in a highly price-competitive, fast-shifting marketplace and they need to do IT better, smarter, faster and cheaper. They have to break the bounds of today's systems and they need much more help from the IT industry to make these changes.

  
  

  The problems that Tom cites are real. But they are symptoms of client/server's demise. They were caused by client/server (just throw cheap bandwidth, storage and servers at any problem!) and they are exactly the kinds of challenges that must be addressed in the new era. What's more, they are exactly the kinds of opportunities that smart entrepreneurs are setting their sights on today.
  
  

  
  
  

• In Tom's rejoinder he wrote, "Things seem very simple to me: strategy is strategic, not information technology. Information technology supports your business strategy. In the most cost effective, agile way, ideally. And that means open source open platform." And also: "I don't think IT has ever been strategic. Except maybe now, if you count the following approach: Don't take on any commercial proprietary software if you can help it."
  
  

• So are enterprise IT vendors the walking dead because of open source? John finds the notion unappealing.
  
  

  "I'll also agree that open source will play a huge role in the future. But I won't agree that everyone will have a plain vanilla open source (yawn) IT architecture that offers no competitive advantage. God forbid that's what the future holds for US businesses, particularly in light of the emergence of powerful global competitors. Saying that Google has built a new business on this low-cost, open source platform misses the point that Google has married that with search technology and a slew of other features and functions - embodied in its own secret sauce IT - that set the company apart. The beauty of open source and commoditization in the hardware arena is that they enable companies to devote more of their IT resources to developing applications that provide a competitive advantage. Just because you are not using off-the-shelf packages doesn't mean you aren't applying IT strategically. In fact, it will be fascinating to see how well New and Old Rules Enterprises take advantage of the power of Web services."
  
  

Some of John's readers have some perspective too. But don't let them have the last word. What's your opinion? Is it all about open source? Is client/server dead? And what the web services future look like - deadly dull or wide open?