Things are changing -- again. But this time the changes are more profound and definitely more permanent. We're entering a new era of partnership between technology and business. These two camps are inseparable now, and business models and processes cannot be implemented without operational and strategic technology. Such technologies as Web 2.0, business intelligence (BI), cloud computing, and social media are changing the business technology optimization game. The way we think about saving money or making money with technology has dramatically changed.

A couple of months ago, I wrote an Opinion for the Cutter Trends Council titled "The Book Is Dead, Long Live the e-Book” (Vol. 10, No. 9). It was one of the hardest articles I have ever written because, while I felt that the conclusion -- that printed books are likely to be replaced over the next decade by e-books -- is true, I love real books. I live in a very big house filled to the rafters with books. In fact, one of the reasons that my wife and I bought this house was the ample (at that time) bookshelves -- the house actually had a small library.

The rapid growth of the software as a service (SaaS) market, along with the closely related cloud computing industry, is attracting a proliferation of players that is creating a buyer's market for customers and raising concerns about an inevitable industry shakeout. This Executive Update examines the rapidly evolving SaaS competitive landscape and discusses the long-term implications of these trends. This is the third in a series of Updates based on Cutter's most recent SaaS survey.

There are five things that everyone better do over the next 12-18 months: 1) rethink and (re-) develop your overall business technology strategies; 2) redesign and redeploy your computing and communications architectures; 3) rethink and re-implement your technology delivery strategies; 4) re-organize your technology organizations with special attention to business technology skills gaps; 5) identify and implement meaningful and measurable technology performance metrics. These five areas define the decisions that must be made as the business technology field fundamentally changes from the world we understood just five years ago. Is there some urgency here? Absolutely, because the nature of the changes we've been tracking is so profound that a misstep here could cost a great deal of time, effort and money.