Jill Dyche uses a photo of Paul Allen and Bill Gates as a jumping off point to talk about a data-centric view of the world.
Remarking:
IT departments furtively investing in successive integration efforts, hoping for the latest and greatest “single version of the truth” watch their budgets erode and their stakeholders flee. CIOs praying that their latest packaged application gets traction realize that they’ve just installed yet another legacy system. Executives wake up and admit that the idea of a huge, centralized, behemoth database accessible by all and serving a range of business needs was simply a dream. Rubbing their eyes they gradually see that data is decoupled from the systems that generate and use it, and past infrastructure plays have merely sedated them.
I really like the successive integration efforts line.
Jill offers an alternative to that sad scenario, but you will have to read her post to find out!