I have been thinking a lot lately about Enterprise Data (I know, aren’t I the cool guy at the Christmas party!) and just how it is being percieved by IT and Management.

I get really uncomfortable when I log in to many enterprise systems for a whole host of reasons. Until now it has been easiest for met to blame the platforms themselves.

So the question I have is this: In light of a shift to mobile, the slow but constant inroads being made by social software and the coming net-generation (or whatever you call it) of employees, what is the future of Enterprise Data? What is the true culmination of SOA based enterprise applications? I am convinced that the end product of SOA based platforms IS NOT two applications sharing a little bit of data over their garden walls, I think something far bigger is at play, and I think we are seeing the result in consumer applications already.

My sense is that the future is going to look different than what we are used to today. I believe that data will become more accessible, be more end user directed and will be a fulcrum for collaboration.

I am still squnting my eyes and scratching my head here,. but I get the sense that there is a shift that is coming, and I am more and more convinced every day that the promise of Enterprise Social Software and Enterprise 2.0 will not be fulfilled by a facebook-clone inside the enterprise, but something much deeper and more action-focused.

A few years in, I feel like we (you, me, all of us) are just getting started on the second iteration of this big idea.