Software deployment and hardware implementation aren't the only parts of the IT department that should be designed with scalability in mind. Growing the department also involves the human factor – and the way the IT staff is structured and the way its members work together can determine whether growth comes easily or with great difficulty.

Google and other agile enterprises scale their demanding applications on commodity hardware using application fabrics. Appistry EAF is software for deploying large-scale, time-critical applications across a virtualized "grid" of commodity-grade computers.

Ryan Stewart comments on the vision of the future, where the lines between desktop and web apps become blurred. Where software deployment is as easy as pushing out web updates, while harnessing the power of the desktop in a platform agnostic fashion where internet connectivity is occasional...not required.