Web 2.0 will create a new kind of “infrastructure application”

There’s a new term starting to make itself known in high tech that says a lot about where technology is moving.

The term is “infrastructure applications.”

Now if the term existed before it did so as a way of designating applications or rather software tools IT and network folks used to manage systems.

As IIT [International Information Technology] described it, infrastructure applications are “operated and supported by the infrastructure organization, but its end-users are found throughout the enterprise.”

That is close but actually not how it is being used now.

Let me explain.

If a hydrogen bomb smashes matter together to create something new, the same can be said for unified communications where we see two technologies collide.

Traditionally voice guys didn’t worry about directory services, for example, but now directory services is as important to voice communications as it is to data.

In past five years the telecommuniations people and IT have collapsed into one group.

Now we also see network people and applications people being drawn together, according to Jeff Kane, president of NEC Unified Communications [UC].

“The distinction between the network layer and the application layer is getting blurred,” said Kane.

In other words, to continue with the example, applications in unified communications is the infrastructure and vice versa.

Applications that create UC services such as presence, switching from IM to voice, or voice to video appear to be the result of a blending of the network infrastructure with the applications that sit directly on top of it.

In fact, thinking about it as a separate layer will not serve you well if you want to be an innovator. Now they have to be thought of as one. The infrastructure that allows all of these communications capabilities are tightly entwined with the applications that become the front end for the technology.

Where this trend will take us I’m not sure.

Perhaps it will mean that software developers will have to have a better understanding of the nuts and bolts of how IT works. Or maybe, IT will need a better grasp of the particular industry segment they work in. They will need to understand the latest trends in their business, the business needs of the company, and how to keep the company competitive.

I think once again Web 2.0 has a lot to do with this and will become a driving force behind new types applications as the infrastructure of the Internet is used to deliver services.

Never a dull moment..