With the globalization of centers of technical excellence, innovation never sleeps. Technology evolution is characterized by the sprouting of millions of ideas into seedling IT enterprises that hope to grow into the next hot public company, or at least sell out to an established firm for a price that compensates for the long hours and high risk of losing your (and your investors') capital.

IT evolution means the sprouting of millions of ideas into seedling enterprises that hope to grow into the next hot public company, or at least sell out to an established firm for a price that compensates for the long hours and high risk of losing owners' and investors' capital. Unfortunately, most such enterprises fail; many because they did not know how to leverage available IT tools and position their innovations to make them easier to adopt by large enterprise customers.

As a CIO for one of the world's largest financial institutions told an entrepreneur, "your product is brilliant, but I couldn't use it, even for free, because it doesn't integrate with my IT infrastructure."

From inception, IT start-ups must consider the integration implications of their products and services for their potential customers (or acquirers).