In May, 2008, top researchers from around the world people gathered near Potsdam, Germany for the International Research Forum sponsored by SAP Research. For two days, these thinkers from business, academia and government examined a topic that will increasingly become part of our vocabulary: the Internet of Services. The discussion illuminated how the Internet of Services will change enterprise computing. It will help businesses leverage core strengths, find partners in new business networks, collaborate and tap new global markets. Software as a service, cloud computing and other trends are democratizing innovation as never before. The infrastructure barriers to doing business in the Internet of Services are falling away. Yet, as this book shows, this new world also poses challenges different from anything we have seen before.. International Research Forum 2008 captures these insights and begins to answer the questions raised at the gathering. This book will cover: How the web based service industry is revolutionizing how services are provided over the Internet and allowing customers to choose from a growing menu of offerings. How the emergence of cloud computing allows companies to outsource basic computing needs and purchase information technology as a service and reduces significant barriers to entry and innovation. How we can begin to understand the mystery of what makes a "killer app" and identify factors that increase the likelihood of successful innovation. How semantic service discovery can help customers find the most appropriate services in a vast ocean of potential offerings. These trends take us to the frontiers of business technology. International Research Forum 2008 explains how the technology, practice and pace of business are evolving rapidly. In some cases, this book answers questions about the future. In others, we can only pose questions and offer partial answers because of the difficulty of predicting the future. In either case, the reader will come away better prepared to meet whatever challenges the future brings.

In May of 2007, SAP Research hosted the second International Research Forum in Eltville, Germany and brought together leading thinkers from academia, business, and government to examine mega trends in Information Technology. In this unique collaborative atmosphere, a world-class collection of entrepreneurs, corporate executives, and researchers brainstormed about service-oriented business transformation. International Research Forum 2007 captures these insights and advances the research agenda that emerged from the Forum. This book explores a sequence of trends that will transform the future of business technology

In March 2006, SAP Research convened a daylong meeting of several dozen thinkers and entrepreneurs in Darmstadt, Germany to discuss the future of information and communication technologies (ICT). The first annual International Research Forum was an earnest effort to grapple with the challenges and opportunities posed by these technologies. The forum's findings-and the accompanying conversation that was by turns provocative, erudite, and even dizzying-have been captured between these covers. International Research Forum 2006 explores how Web 2.0 and Real World Awareness technologies point to a fundamentally different model of ICT, the security challenges these technologies pose, and whether they can be a lever for growth on a national or even global scale.