Talk about growing pains. A new generation of technologies, born in this century, are out of the crib and getting into every nook and cranny of the enterprise, knocking over everything that isn’t nailed down.

Why are the ‘2.0s’ — Web 2.0, Office 2.0, and Enterprise 2.0 — gaining so much mindshare within enterprises? Sure, these initiatives are merry mashups and wild wikis that make computing fun for techies and non-techies alike. But they represent the future of business as well. David Precopio says it all in a new post, noting that the 2.0s “are real and will drive how organizations communicate with customers and business partners now and in the future. For many companies, these 2.0 technologies will determine whether they are in business in five years.”

Enterprise applications and data can no longer be locked away within the walls of a silo within an enterprise. While it may be costly to open up these silos, it may be far more costly to leave them locked up.

Service oriented architecture and business process management are part of the answer to unlocking legacy applications, but alone, their progress has been evolutionary. When combined with the 2.0s, however, such initiatives are going to have a profound impact on business survival and success, Precopio explains.

(Slight digression here… we’re not going to acknowledge the “SOA 2.0” designation that some vendors such as Oracle have come up with. SOA is SOA is SOA.)

Precopio puts SOA, BPM, EAI, and Web 2.0 into a new emerging category he calls “Enterprise Web 2.0,” or EW2.0. EW2.0 looks at three tiers:

1. Applications and application integration
2. Connectivity (Internet, wireless, network)
3. End-point technologies such as PDA’s and laptops

Applications are the foundation of EW2.0, Precopio says: “This includes portal, wikis, mash-ups, and Web technologies.” Connectivity is the “always on” component of EW2.0 — which is what users inside and outside the enterprise now take for granted. Finally, the endpoint devices — be they laptops, PDAs, hybrid phones, or iPhones (or whatever Apple ends up calling them). Enterprises need to consider all types of devices in their end-user access strategies.

The sooner companies decide on their strategies around EW2.0, the better prepared they will be for this new era. As Precopio puts it:

“Companies need a framework to help define organizational goals pertaining to EW2.0. With these goals, companies can list and prioritize applications. Then based on their understanding of the three main areas of EW2.0, companies can make informed decisions on whether to purchase or build, who can access, and how applications will be delivered.”

Customers and consumers will expect nothing less. Employees will expect nothing less. BUsiness partners will expect nothing less. All eyes will be on the CIO to deliver an always-on, networked system that provides the information that is needed, regardless of where it was originally stored and managed.