1 The Enterprise Needs

1.1 INTRODUCTION
The world is steadily becoming more interconnected, more interdependent, more aware, and (we hope) more cooperative. almost every part of each enterprise benefits from the assistance of computers. preserving a degree of autonomy, parts of an enterprise can become directly or indirectly linked to the other parts via networks of computers. we are witnessing a gradual networking of humankind's thought resources. an ambitious vision of the future has been simply stared:

It is the vision of a world on-line, any to any, with instant responsiveness, not limited by bandwidth or proprietary condierations-a world in which the network conforms to our work habits rather than the other way around, with people manipulating images as easily a they manipulate words and data today-and all with continuous availability, high reliability, tight security, and automatic network management.

The